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291 two nine one will savior who action.
For not having.
My name is exalted above all glory.
291.
Savior.
When we finish the Church of Sardis or.
Well, we commented a little bit service, but we might read Chapter 3 entirely and then maybe make a few comments on Charles and probably concentrate on Philadelphia latest here.
Congratulations.
Revelation chapter 3.
Revelation chapter 3, verse one.
So read the whole of it, I think so unto the Angel of the Church in Sardis, right?
These things saith he that hath 7 spirits of God, and seven stars. I know thy works, that thou hast the name that thou littest and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, or I have not found my works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent.
If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on me as a thief.
And thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon me.
Thou has a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.
And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment.
And I will not blot out his name.
Out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Even half an year, 11 year, what the Spirit said unto the churches.
And to the Angel of the church in Philadelphia, right these things saith he that is holy, he that is true.
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Hath the key of David he that openeth, and no man shot and shut up, and no man open up? I know thy works. Behold, I have sat before thee an open door, and no man can shut it, For thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word, and it's not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not.
But you lie, behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee because.
As thou was 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 your.
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.
Be that half a year, let him hear what the Spirit said unto the churches.
And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, right these things say at the faithful, they say at the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou art cold or hot.
So then, because our Luke warm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest I'm rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. And no, it's not without wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
I counsel be to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayst be rich and white, Raymond, that thou mayst be clothed, and that the shame by nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with thyself, that thou may see as many as I love. I believe and chase him. 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 we'll stop with him and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.
Even as I also overcame and I'm sat down with my father in his throne.
He that half an ear, let him hear what was here, and say it unto the churches.
Maybe a little recapitulation might be in order.
We're looking at the chapter two and three of Revelation.
There were seven churches.
That the Lord speaks to the also John who wrote this book.
These were actual churches in Asia Minor. They were in different spiritual conditions. So we have emphasis. Then we have Smyrna, we have Thyatira.
And what we read this evening, this afternoon.
Philadelphia and later we see it. So we covered yesterday.
The first two or four churches.
Emphasis. They had left their first law. They were declining.
In true devotedness to the war there was outward propriety. Then they were doing everything according to the order of God. But there was a lack of spiritual.
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Devotedness to the law. And he felt it.
Very deeply we come to Smyrna in the second chapter. This was a suffering church. This was the time of the 10 awful.
Persecutions of the Roman Empire you read it in history there were 10 distinct persecutions against the Christian Church and there were many markers in this period the Lord has only commendation for the church in summer they have been faithful. He promised them the overcomer, to have a crown of light because many of them were marked they were giving up their their.
Earthly lives were the were their testimony, and the Lord promises them a crown of life in that coming day that nothing will be able to grow, will take be able to remove from them. Now we come to the Church of Siatara. This is a picture of the.
Christened them, but mainly.
The Roman Catholic Church is brought before us in Thaiatira and her power and her domination.
And the error of her doctrine, the wickedness of her teachings, and.
Her her desire to have a secular power and to control the governments of Western Europe, that was her aim and her Object. But there were remnants inside Tyler. There were those that were faithful.
To the war and think of the Albany, Jensen, the Wall, Dengues, Waldensians and so on. There were remnants in that awful period of the Dark Ages.
And about 600 to maybe 1400, just at the time of the Wickliffe, the dawn of the Reformation, there were many faithful witnesses who gave their lives in those dark times. Then we come now to.
Through the Church of Sardis, which is.
It's a picture of a movement of God in the.
Reformation period fourteen, 15th century. There was a real movement of dog to return to the supremacy of the Word of God.
And and.
It was a movement of God justification by faith, not through the ordinances of the church. There were many grave witnesses for the Lord in in that period that caucus and reclamation.
As it is solved but afterwards.
When the.
The early.
Devotedness of the reformers declined and the the system of Protestantism became associated with the national churches. That's that's what we have in Sardis, not so much the Reformation, but the outcome of looking to the temporal power, looking to then the the the governments of the lands.
To protect.
Christian testimony that that's contrary to the heavenly calling of the Church, but that's the Reformers adopted that line, that line of.
Teaching which is not according to the word of God, so.
From Sardis were going on to Philadelphia, but someone, someone will have a further comment on service. Yeah, it may be good to distinguish between the terms of reformation and constantism. They're really different.
The Reformation of the work that probably historically begin 1519, didn't it, when the Luther nailed his theses to the the door there in Wittenberg Chapel door in Wittenberg. There were others that were the morning stars of the reclamation. John Huss a little earlier, about over 100 years earlier.
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Wickliffe even earlier than that, in the 1300s.
And so the seats have been laid, and then the movement really gained strength beginning with about 1519, didn't it? And that's the Reformation. And that was clearly a work of the Spirit of God, wasn't it? And that came along the lines of the remnant we spoke about at the end of Thyatira. Remember, there are three things that characterize that remnant. First, as we mentioned.
Earlier the Lord's coming is mentioned rather than repentance. It looks forward to the Lord's coming. These last four churches are continued trying to continue to the Lord's coming. There's no possibility now of a return to the original condition of by repentance. And so that's why we speak of the ruling that the general testimony no longer a question now going along with the church at large, but God has separated out a remnant.
Because the general testimony is not faithful to him. And so that began with the Reformation. Let's be clear about that. And there were five solids at the beginning of the Reformation of I got him down in my Bible, faith, only faith rather than work, only the Scriptures. And Martin Luther became a doctor of divinity. He swore enough to hold the Scriptures and he often referred to that. And it's not the not the church that has final authority.
It's the Scriptures, and that was one of the foundations of the Reformation solo Christos.
Which means that Christ is the alone mediator. The Catholics at all these intermediators, they marry, they they they pray to Mary and they pray to all these Saints. Lucas said no, there's one mediator according to Scripture, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And so gratia are grace. I don't know my Latin, but that is that God's sovereignty is the alone basis for man's new birth and salvation, not works.
But God's sovereignty, Gods, is our brother, fruitful with exhorting us today. We didn't deserve to be saved, any of us. It was God's grace that chose us.
And then the fifth one, God's glory, they understood something we sometimes forget, but they understood that the great end of salvation was God's glory. That was a great thing. Not the glory of the Catholic Church, but God's glory. So those five things. And that again is what we call reformation. And that clearly was a work of the Spirit of God.
But it wasn't long as as her brother Kent was shuffled was telling us that we had Protestantism. Now Protestantism was not a work of God, the spirit of God. That was a work of the politicians. Now they meant well because the Western Europe was controlled by by emperor.
And the Emperor was Catholic Charles the 5th.
And he was a died in wolf Catholic and he was Spanish. He came into power and his great end was to defeat the Reformation every time he tried to the Spirit of God.
Made it impossible for him. He would have liked to have seen Luther killed on a number of occasions. And of course the Catholics you can imagine will live it and they tried on a number of occasions to to kill Martin Luther, but they were unsuccessful every time.
They thought they could get the upper hand, the Spirit of God that whisk away. And so for a number of years then then the politicians came in and they began to protect the reformers. So they had a great council, This is what I'm getting to. And in that council there were a number of Princess that supported the amber. But rather than forcing their dominions to become Catholic, they protested at one of these great councils.
That's where Protestantism comes in. It was a political protest, and they meant well.
Some of those were coffee men, many were not particularly godly for various reasons. They supported the Reformation. They weren't happy with the, with the Pope and so on, and then even with the emperor to a certain extent. And they, they, they protested, they walked out from that council and protested against the demand that they bring their dominions back under the Roman sea under the influence of the Pope. So that's Protestantism. And that's really what we haven't started, isn't it? So the, we really don't get much in the Reformation, but we always repeal to it.
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Mr. Darby quoted Isaac Newton by saying that he stood on the shoulders of giants. And so there's some important things that happened. First, there was absolute deadness. These people and reformed lands had a great deal of truth, but it had become now a form. There was a terrible time. Remember, the Reformation began about 1519, at least historically. It was strengthened for the next 30 years or so.
And then it began a gradual decline and in the early 1600s there was a horrible 30 Days war.
A 30 years war, I should say. And during those 3030 years, what happened? This this was the time that men like Gerhardt or Stegan were prominent. And Henry Suso and Paul Gerhart, you read some of their writings, some of their poems are beautiful.
Men of tremendous devotion. And what happened then was the Catholics got the upper hand and they decided to butcher the Protestants.
And it's important to try to get a hold of history because the 30 Years War was a horrible, horrible time. Cities of Protestant lands were laid waste. The Protestants had to flee to the caves in the fields as they were butchered by these unprincipled Catholic soldiers under the power of the emperor. And that lasted for 30 years at the beginning of the of the 1600s, what we call the 17th century.
And then there was some real butchery for that time.
Then there was a partial restoration of some of Protestantism, although Germany, it was said, was laid waste because much of Germany had become Protestant, became a wasteland, literally field were not plowed, the cities were destroyed, and my mother-in-law spoken about some of that historical period. But then things began to recover a little bit.
And in the early 18th century, which would be the 1700s, we have what's called the Great Evangelical Awakening. And that's all in service, isn't it?
Grady Evangelical awakenings of the prominent names, of course, were John Wesley and Charles Wesley, Englishman and also Whitfield, who came to United States as well, and they began the great Evangelical awakening.
Where many, many people were saved and that was the foundation then.
Of what we call the Philadelphia movement.
You know.
Might be helpful for young people why is it called the Reformation it means it's a term that scholars have given that time they these men have good intentions they tried to reform the Catholic Church so that's why it's called the Reformation but it didn't work at all you can't reform something that's corrupt even in the eyes of dogs even in the eyes of men that's clear Erica's brought out and so the.
They received a lot of opposition and they were told by the Roman Catholic Church that if they didn't come back, they would be terminally damned. And so he says in verse five, I will not flood out His name out of the Book of life, but I will confess His name before my Father and before his angels. Those are the overcomers. They would not lose their salvation. And so this was a word of encouragement to them at that time.
Now we need to remember that the Lord Jesus is not surprised with the whole history of the church.
He's told it all out before time and I think his brother Harry Hail used to say.
Prophecy is history written ahead of time. And so the Lord spoke of this and he this, these passages, this particular passage of Scripture might have been an encouragement to men like Martin Luther and perhaps even some of those older ones that the John Wesley and others, they might have read these things and received encouragement. But he says here.
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That in verse three, that this whole condition of things, this Protestant church system, this whole Protestantism would continue until the appearance of the Lord Jesus, and it would be judged that the appearing, because it was dead, it was going on in a form of Christianity. And so he says in verse three, Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent.
They were supposed to be an exercising of self judgment because of their departure from the original freshness of the work of the Spirit of God at that time. If therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. So every time in scripture where it's mentioned the coming of the Lord as a thief, it's referring to the appearing of the Lord Jesus.
At the end of the Tribulation period, and he's going to come and he's going to judge the false church and everything that's false. And he'll judge those that are have seized upon this world and taken it for themselves. Men of the earth, that they're called earth dwellers in the Book of Revelation. And so he speaks a word of warning to them, and then he speaks very faithfully to those.
Very lovingly, if I could put it this way to those that are real they have not to file their garments in verse four. They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy in that lovely there were those like you think of William Farrell and some of those beloved Saints of God. They were worthy they.
Live for Christ. They have to leave their homes and they have to go to live in other countries.
And they fled for their lives. Some of them were poisoned, some of them were martyred in other ways.
And the Lord valued that testimony. They live for Christ. And so this is really the message in connection with the Sardis is there are those, there's a little remnant there that was preserved with God himself, and he owned that little remnant.
My speech of blocking out the name I might say.
Make a comment that it's impossible for a true believer to have their name blotted out of the book of life. That is the eternally inscribed that. But there are some that take the profession of Christianity against artists. They have the outward form. They are nominally Christian. We have many in in India that character too, and other countries.
And.
They would say they are Christian, but they do not have a divine life. They've never been born again, they've never been. Their names have never been put by God in the book of life. And so.
Their profession will come to nothing. They will.
They will no longer be connected with the Christian profession. But now we're coming on. We're coming here into another church. And it is a picture of.
A special movement of the Spirit of God.
In the 1800s.
Perhaps around 1827 thirty, there was an awakening among.
True believers as to the ground of their gathering, they were connected with the national churches, Mr. Darby, Mr. Kelly and others they were.
Had positions in the clerical system, but been looking at the word of God. They saw that this was not a scriptural.
Order to the To be ordained by man to minister the word of God.
There was no acknowledgement of the one body of Christ even among the Reformers.
Wonderful truths that they brought forward as the justification by faith they did not understand the truth of separation from the.
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The whole order of Christendom.
And a heavenly calling. This is what the Lord brought before believers in the.
In that period that we're looking at here, Philadelphia and.
There was a return to the.
The apostles doctrine and fellowship, not the power of the Apostolic period, not the gift through no such thing as apostles now. But we do have the doctrines and the teachings of the apostles. And this was a return to that which was from the beginning. It wasn't the setting up of a new church or a new denomination, anything of that sort. It was a return.
To the original.
Principles of gathering not to a denomination, not taking a sectarian name, but being gathered simply as members of the body of Christ to the name of the Lord Jesus, acknowledging him as the center of gathering and the Spirit of God to have liberty to guide and to use the gifts that have been imparted by an ascended Christ.
In Glory.
And this is the period that we are looking at now in the Church of Philadelphia. Is that right? Yeah, That's very important to understand, isn't it? We use the word reform again. And it's so important because the early reformers wanted to do just that. They wanted to reform the church. They didn't look at a new beginning, but they wanted to reform the church. And even in Protestantism, the different groups wanted to reform the system of Protestantism.
They didn't realize that a whole new system, I should put it that way, they didn't realize that the true church was not a reform of the corrupt church, but it was a whole new beginning. And the reason why a whole new beginning was required was because what men called churches, either Protestant or are Catholic, were not the scriptural church. Because again, the ruin of the general testimony had come in. And with ruin you don't just reform it. You have to come back to the very beginning.
The Protestants and the Catholics would go back to the Fathers and some Scriptures. The Protestants are the reformers, understood some of the individual truths of Christianity. They did not understand what we call dispensational truth, the clear distinction between Jew, Gentile and Church of God. He did not understand that. And so with the ruin of the church, these men in the early 1800s said we can't just reform a ruined church.
We have to go back to the Scriptures, not just to the Fathers. That's where the corruption began. They were told to events.
About that in Ephesus and and in Pergamus, we have to go back to the original. Where is that? Well, thankfully there were quite a number weren't there wasn't just one group. There were a number of of of individuals exercised about the same truth scattered throughout Christendom. And then it began to form into a troubleshoot and we can be so thankful for that. And they said they looked around. This is not the scripture or this is not the Church of the Bible.
The Church of the Bible is what we have. Again, let's look at that. I mentioned it yesterday briefly in Second Timothy, but it's so important to understand the separation that's required.
In Second Timothy chapter 2 and again the whole chapter is so critical, but reading in verse 20, I just briefly referred to it for time sake yesterday afternoon meeting. But verse twenty of Second Timothy 2 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, those are real believers.
It also avoided a birth. Those are not real believers, only professors.
Some to honor and some to dishonor. Well, of course an unbeliever can't be a vessel to honor, but he can be a vessel to dishonor. And as we know many professors, our vessels to dishonor. But even a believer can be a vessel to dishonor or a vessel to honor. And we're thankful for many believers in the what we call the camp today who are best. Let's honor. They act according to the light they have.
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They seek to honor the Lord, but notice there's a third class.
Verse 21 And this was what we have with Philadelphia. If a man therefore purge or purify himself from these, that's this great mixture, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the masters, use and prepared unto every good work. That's all the council of God. They're not just a reform, but all the counsel of God. And that's what we have the penalty.
Might be helpful to read Hebrews chapter 13. This is really what they did is they went forth in the interview of faith outside the camp. It says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 11.
Three verse 10 we have an altar or a means of approach to God.
Whereof they have no right to each which serve the Tabernacle. So a means of approach to God that the Jew didn't have Christianity is distinct and so we don't mix Jewish principles with Christian principles and those that were exercised by the Spirit of God.
To leave that kind of mixture of Judaism and Christianity and to leave it and to come out.
They did this they it says verse 12, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify and our brother mentioned this yesterday. To be sanctified in this way is to be set apart by God for a holy purpose and so the Lord Jesus himself.
Wanted to sanctify the people with His own blood. Suffered without the gate, the gate of Jerusalem. He was covered out of all that spoke of religion, earthly religion. Let us go forth therefore unto Him.
Without the king. And so the camp speaks of the religious organization of this world bearing his reproach.
So there are some things I think we mentioned, you may have mentioned them in these meetings, but there are some things that are unique to Christianity and one is His own blood.
That's in verse 12 and then his reproach we just read in verse 13 and then we have his name by him. Therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God, continue. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Three things that are unique to Christianity. So these dear brother.
Separated from the church system and came out and began to remember the Lord in his death in simplicity as we could read in First Corinthians Chapter 11 and they began to they didn't take a name, They didn't say, well, we're the Church of the brethren, we're the Church of whatever national church and so on. They took the name of Christ. And here it says in our chapter 3. The Lord really valued that he says.
In.
Verse 8, just at the end of verse 8, thou hast a little strength or a little power. Wasn't Pentecostal power like on the Day of Pentecost, just a little power?
And has kept my word and not denied my name. Oh, how the Lord values that. And So what these brethren did was go back to the original way that the apostles met and the disciples met at the beginning of the church period. So they began to practice Christianity in a normal way. Let me just reinforce this when you come to the assembly meeting.
And when we remember the Lord Jesus in his death this morning, the way we did, gathered by the Spirit of God under the precious name of the Lord Jesus, we were practicing normal Christianity. This is normal. It's not normal to have a pastor. It's not normal to have the name of another person or the Church of Scotland or whatever it might be. That's not normal Christianity. So this is really what Philadelphia.
The what the Lord had to say to come in the.
00:40:00
Philadelphia customers, they left all that was a mixture.
And they came out, and they were gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege it was, what joy it gave to the heart of the Savior.
Also.
In regard to.
The Prophetic.
Side of things or?
What we mean by prophecy, of course.
The Old Testament is filled with prophetic.
For announcements.
Blessing to the nation of Israel.
In the coming day, but Christendom before Philadelphia, they really.
They looked upon the Church as a moral force to build a better world, that by the promulgation, the proclamation of the gospel, the world would be prepared for the coming of Christ.
That was entirely wrong.
The reformers and those that were connected with Protestantism, they really didn't understand the true calling of the church, that the church is a heavenly company with heavenly hopes and.
Coming of the Lord to remove us out of this world into His presence at any moment.
You might say the prophetic clock was not was not ticking during the church period. Now to clarify things. When did the church begin?
Was it in the Old Testament? Some people say, Oh yeah, the church was in the Old Testament. And the promises to Israel. Now we take up those promises for the church. No, that's that's wrong completely.
The prophecies of the Old Testament will be fulfilled to the letter. Israel will be restored to their land. They will be at the head, not the tail. They all blessing will fall through.
The nation of Israel in the millennial day, that is an earthly blessing.
But many of the reformers and many believers, they didn't understand that. They didn't realize that God has two distinct purposes. And you can't understand Scripture unless you understand these these two points, that God has an earthly people who will have an earthly blessing and inheritance down here.
And he has a heavenly people. The church began at Pentecost, and the Spirit of God descended, united those 120 in the upper room into one body. That was the beginning, the birthday of the church. And it has gone on and others, many thousands have been added into the body.
Not not correctly baptized.
Only one baptism of the Holy Spirit, but when a person is saved, they're added into the body. They become part of the body. But now the church period. It is a parenthesis in the ways of God.
It was not.
Foretold in the Old Testament. There's no scriptures in the Old Testament that refer to the Church of God. It was a rebel. It was a revelation, particularly to the apostle Paul. It's part of Paul's teaching. We don't get it in the ministry of John, but Paul brings out the heavenly character and calling of the church.
Which has not to do with an earthly.
Center and an earthly inheritance. No, we are our hope is to be with Christ and reign with him over the earthly inheritance. But the hope of the believer is the coming of the Lord to lift us out of this world into the presence of the Lord at any moment could take place tonight. I hope it does, but while we are waiting we are not part of.
This.
All corrupts were part of Christendom. We can't get out of. We can't get out of the great house, but we are called upon as another Eric has brought before us, to separate from what is contrary to the word of God in Christendom. We are in the great house, but we are called to separate from.
00:45:20
The error and the unstructural human organization.
That is all over Christendom, the will of man, not the word of God, that right to honor.
Yeah, if you might just say that one of the great recoveries, there was a great recovery of the truth of God and the truth of the church and what the epistles really meant, what they were teaching, the heavenly calling of the Church, that would all recover during these, the early 1800s. And by the way, I'll say this.
The period of time is very brief, Mr. Darby said in his writing. He says the.
Yeah, golden time of the Philadelphia period was for 20 years, from 18271828 to 1848, when the open gathering division took place, he says. Those 1St 20 years were the golden years of this movement, but it was the coming of the Lord that was recovered that significantly changed the character of what was viewed as a Christian testimony in this world and it affected the whole.
Of the Christian testimony, and you have Brother Eric referred to it in the chapter 25 of Matthew in that little picture of the going out of the midnight cry, verse 6, Matthew 25, verse six at midnight. There it is in the darkest part of the night.
The truth that the implied out and God had shown the light and at midnight there was a cry made. Behold the bridegroom.
Not cometh, but it says, Behold, the bridegroom go get out to meet him, and all those virgins arose will turn their laps. So the cry went out, the Lords coming, and the distinction between the appearing of the Lord Jesus at the end of the tribulation, and the distinction between this coming for his Saints.
Before the Tribulation period, He comes for his Saints at the rapture, and he'll come with his Saints at the appearance. That distinction was brought up fully, and so there was a recovery about truth, and it created the heavenly character to the Church for you to say.
Now, the real key to the Philadelphia recovery is what we call dispensational truth.
That includes the rapture, of course, but it's the distinction as it says in First Corinthians 10, the end of 1St Corinthians 10.
Because no offense to Jew, Gentile or Church of God to understand it's clear distinction of those three people groups.
Of Jews and Gentiles. Of course, everybody that wasn't a Jew in the Old Testament was a Gentile, and it's still true, naturally speaking, unless you're a Christian and then the Christian. Of course, Christianity is made-up of both Jews and Gentiles formerly, but now we're believers. So we need to keep that distinction in mind, don't we? Between Jews, Gentile and Church of God, Each one has distinct origins, distinct calling and distinct hope.
And so I really believe the key of David that we have mentioned in verse seven, it's speaking about the sovereignty of of administration. I really believe it's an indication of dispensational truth, the clear distinction between especially Israel and the and the church that John was bringing out. Now Mr. Kelly says, for instance, again, on most, most of Christendom today is what we call covenantal. They say, well, there's really no, no real distinction. It's just a progression.
From Israel to the church, it's not a clear distinction, Mr. Kelly will say, well, for one thing, notice the Old Testament in the New Testament are written in different languages. Doesn't that give us some clue that there might be a, a distinction between what's taught in the Old Testament, what's taught in the New Testament, of course. And then that truth was brought out that the church is entirely distinct. As John said, return back to the great 70 weeks of Daniel and Daniel 9.
The church is a parenthesis between the 69th and the 70th weeks never anticipated in the Old Testament. It's the mystery.
00:50:08
Of Christ in the church that we've been speaking about. And so I believe that he of David really has to do with that. Now, what's the advantage of that? All of a sudden, the Christian blessings are brought out entirely distinct from Israel. The Trinity, God is our Father, the one body, the household of God, the family of God were children of God. All those things are brought out now in Christianity.
Never anticipated in the Old Testament. Furthermore, the Old Testament became alive with the understanding of Christianity as it properly was.
The types that came into focus as we've been speaking about, they were, they were. They're buried in the Old Testament, if we could put it that way. They're only forms before. Now they're seeing this types and prophecy came alive.
All of a sudden the distinction came out and we understand what relates to Israel and what relates to the church. Now we have an interest in what's happening to Israel and what's happening to the worldwide. Well, First Corinthians, Corinthians 110 and 11 That in the dispensation of the fullness of time, you might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. So although the Jews will be the foremost people on the earth.
The Christian will reign from heaven because we are the bride of Christ, one of the the highest privileges. The Christian has the highest privileges of all gods creatures. Mr. Faraday put it this way. I love the I love the expression, he said. As Israel is the aristocracy of the earth, the Christian is the aristocracy of the universe. We're heirs of God and coheres of Christ. That's not true of Israel.
Heirs, both of we have spirit, a spiritual inheritance, and we have an earthly, a material inheritance. We're going to reign with Christ over both earth and heaven during the millennial period. So these distinctions were brought out and all of a sudden, as they said, not only did you rest of the camel life, but the Old Testament came alive because as we mentioned, the illustrations in the Old Testament illustrate the truth of the New Testament.
Now there's going to be a danger of this truth being lost.
And so in verse 11, he says, I come quickly.
Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. So it is possible for men, even believers, to do the enemy's work, and to in a deceitful way.
'Cause that the people of God does not walk in the truth.
And then the crown would be lost.
And so the fear of God gives us warning, because, as we've said before, the Thyatira.
And Sardis, Philadelphia and Legacy it continue on right to the end.
And so we have all four examples of those conditions in the church.
Even today. And so we need to hold fast what we have.
But perhaps we could begin and comment a little bit on Latency. We have 15 minutes here, but I just mentioned Robert in connection with, excuse me, the verse 10.
Well, because I was getting the word of my patients.
I also will keep thee. It should read out of the hour of temptation, which is the Tribulation period. The hour of temptation is that awful judicial dealing of God with Christendom, with the apostate Israel. It's the seven-year period.
Of beginning.
Shortly after the rapture, so the rapture takes place, and all true believers the body of Christ.
Are taken into the glory.
In a moment, the twinkling of an eye, we receive our glorified bodies.
And we enter the father's house, and the government see the price and thought, but.
Now the tribulation is the hour of temptation or trial that God is going to bring upon this world. He's going to deal with with this world for their rejection of His Son in revelation.
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Covers that whole period in detail the rest of the book. But the church is not going to go through that awful time.
Of judgment worse than the Lord spoke of it in Matthew 24, That with the days were not shortened, No, no flesh would be saved. It would be such a terrible time of persecution.
Of the believers, the church will not be here as we have in this verse. We're going to be kept out of that hour, but it's going to come upon all the world to try them that flow upon the earth.
One of the keys to the distinction between Philadelphia and later the sea is found in the pronouns.
Notice in verse 12 him that overcometh. This is the Lord speaking. Even verse 11. Behold, I come quickly.
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out and eyes is Christ speaking, will write upon him the name of my God, 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. I'll notice the difference in later this year in verse.
17 Because thou sayeth I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, knoweth not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and so on.
Philadelphia's Christ Center, Laodicea is self-centered. It's indifference to the claims of Christ, isn't it? It's intelligence in some respect, but it's indifference to the claims in the recovered truth that was recovered in Philadelphia.
Yes, the name laid Asia means the rights of the people, And so it was evident to the Spirit of God and it's written for our learning that the Christian testimony in the day that we live in would be great to the point where the believers would think they had rights.
In the presence of God, you know I enjoy. I think Brother Dave Burns probably heard this when we were young, brother.
Norman Barry used to say the day that you got saved, you gave up your rights to choose.
You took Jesus as your savior. You took the Lord Jesus as your savior. You own him as your Savior now, but you also call him Lord.
You addressed in the floor.
And you surrendered your rights to choose. You gave your rights to him. He has now the authority in your life. You address him as Lord. And so this is forgotten and late to see if Philadelphia means brotherly love. And so there was evidence of brotherly love and sacrificing for one another and the 24th of the gospel of the grace of God and the truth. But in Laodicea it is really different. It's love itself.
And it's not considering the rights of Christ and the feelings of Christ.
The joys of Christ is the individual feeling that he has personal rights and it's really perhaps we might say the spirit of democracy and we'll say this that Mister Darby and his writing several times and he's not the only one of those little writers says that land is SIA began in 1848 at the beginning of the open driver of the business. He said Philadelphia was really the only in its power.
And golden years, you might say, to those 20 years and then later see it again.
I might mention that Matthew 1820 is so often quoted. I think it's awful, misunderstood. It's just where we're two or three are gathered together. You know it should say uncombining. There am I miss? Why does it say unto my name? I think often it's quoted as we gather to Christ. That's true, but I believe it's more when it says unto his name.
Because it respects and vows not only to the person of Christ, many believers do that. To the work of Christ, many believers do that. But the name implies authority. We bow to the authority of Christ. I believe that's again the difference between.
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Sanctified vessels to honor Sanctified. We bow to the authority of Christ.
There's many vessels to honor in the camp, thankful for the Lord for that, but vessels daughter sanctified and they want to make this comment too. There's two types of remnants in the scripture. Very plainly there's a moral remnant, people who act and have a good conscience according to the truth they have. That's just the honor. We can be thankful for those men and women, but there's a positional remnant as well. There's a danger even in the positional render.
Of of not being a moral remnant. Look at those in the days of Malachi. There were many that were in the right position, but they were not in the right condition of soul, were they? Or in the Lord's day, look at how many there were just a small little remnant, that some piece of powder remnant within a remnant. Mr. Patterson uses that expression and under some Object to it, but I believe the thought is that within the positional remnant there was a moral remnant, not everybody in the right position.
Was in the right condition what the Lord calls us to is to be bold having the right condition, moral condition before God and being in the right position. Is that right Steve Yeah, I appreciate that that distinction so important because really you might say the remnant is all true believers as to you know that football how many are.
You know, in the other as well.
Dave, can you help us?
Well, I'm enjoying this.
This might be a little different flavor. Is that all right?
I we go back in the chapter of what we were first speaking about. I just want to make one comment with regard to having the main blotted area, because often that Scripture is used.
For justification.
Per person's name, People out of date.
But I believe the thought there is in Sardis.
There were those that all of a sudden had real life.
And what they promoted was not appreciated, and so their names were blotted out of the Protestant churches. And the Lord says to them, but your name is not going to be blotted out from the book.
And that leads into.
What we have in these these next two churches, I've enjoyed this. I was enjoying this just meditating on a not knowing what you've taken up here, but.
Thinking a little bit of the the.
The recovery books that we have in the in the Old Testament, so we have.
We have Ezra, we have Nehemiah at Esther, and they've all got a little different character.
The thought of Ezra.
Was the there was a recovery there? The the temple is is built and then there's the there's the.
The arc is recovered. There's all the golden vessels that are recovered, there's the silver vessels that are recovered, there's the brass vessels. They're all brought back. They're not destroyed. They were there. It was like they weren't there, but they're all brought back.
And now what do you do at a in a situation like that? How do you maintain that will that moves in moves from then into the next book, which is Nehemiah. These are just pictures really of what we have here. So, so how do you maintain, how do you maintain what we have there in in in Philadelphia? Well, in Nehemiah State, there was a character, personal character that was a character of weeping. There was a wall that had to be built. It took the six chapters. There you have the wall walls built in six chapters. Then you have the 7th chapter, the 13th chapter, which is really the, the civil.
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Behavior.
Of those that are within those walls and we see that I believe here even before the overcomer in Laodicea. You have beautiful place here you have a council be to buy any gold try in the fire. I can't see the with the white raiment and then there's there's to have our eyes annoyed with ice Isaac there's there's all these things that actually happened before the overcomer but they're characteristics of being able to maintain.
That which was recovered, it's wonderful to have it recovered, but oh, there needs to be a maintenance of those things themselves and there and of course we find that.
In this next course that we have and it's beautiful to carry that on through to the overcomer that we have in. I see we already got 5 minutes but.
The the overcoming thing, we have to see it. I'm sorry, it's a little different flavor, but it's a picture, I think, of what we have. I think properly speaking, we looked at the moral parables, of which there are many in the Old Testament.
That Ezra Nehemiah properly corresponds with the Philadelphia recovery.
But lay and see at the day in which we live, by and large we really have the first two chapters of.
There did 400 silent years worth there from the time that Valentine laid down in 10400 silent years when there was no written prophecy. And then of course we know the Lord Jesus appears and there was that small remnant, the Simmons in the **** of Joseph's and Mary's. They were the the true remnant. You ended away to seeing data, if I could call it that. And so I think that we need to keep that in mind. I've often said too, I believe it's true.
That the overcover and legacy is really took them.
What is really a Philadelphia?
Because Philadelphia goes on to the end.
Well, there was individual fellowship with those that would go on.
In faithfulness to the Lord, he says, Behold, I stand at the door and talk, if any man hear my voice.
And open the door, I will come into him and will suck with him to be with me. So there was individual fellowship, individual communion with the Lord, with those that would go on faithfully. It's we often use it in the gospel of grace of God. But I believe that the real interpretation is communion with the Lord in the time of failure. And so we have this church they had a.
And basically a gross over appreciation of their own wealth and their own standing and so on, but really is a true faith of God that was felt the weight of the situation in the way to see it would walk individually in communion with the Lord and gives the highest commendation of any church at all. It's astonishing in verse 21 to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me.
In my probe.
Now you see it sitting on his father's home at the moment, but he will arrive from his father's throne and he will come and set up his Kingdom, and he will sit upon his throne, and he will reward those that went on in a day of weakness and a day of unfaithfulness. And we're faithful in watching community with him. You know, if you follow this little expression in the Word of God in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus uses this little extractor with me.
He uses it many times. The last time I used it, I think he knows Revelation chapter 22. He says in verse 12, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me really referring to the judgment seat of Christ. I believe so shortly after the rapture there's going to be the judgment seat of Christ and feel delight to reward. But in the day that we live in a day of weakness when the rights of Christ are being trampled.
When the there's indifference to his glory, we have honor to his dignity.
Why we can walk in community with him all he delights in that we can give joy to his heart.
And second Timothy two, you really should read the next verse of where we stop verse 22 because if you say it's an individual exercise, but.
There's a collective position there flee also a youthful lust. This is after the vessels honor sanctified but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call in the Lord out of a pure or is the same word of cursed or purified art. So even though it's individual responsibility, there's a collective position and it's good to remember that there's two dangers in the collective position and we've seen it in division. Some divisions are too narrow.
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Mr. Derby speaks about a man named Clark. You can read about it in his letters. He wanted to gather faithful men around himself and be kind of the center of, of a of a of a highly spiritual group. But that's not the Assembly of God. There's some of us that are weak and needy as well as those that are spiritual. And there's others that want to move towards the camp and give up much of the truth that was recovered. I believe that was what we often call it.
1St Division, for instance, was more along those lines. It was a compromise in a wider place than what we read out in Scripture, a movement back to the camp. And that's typically what happened with people that go in that movement. They want to become more like the camp, like Israel wanted a king, like all the other nations. And it's a giving up of those truths that have been recovered. So there's two errors, isn't there? One is narrower than the path of faith, than the other is broader than the path of faith.
But God is faithful, and there's a with them that call on the Lord out of a purifying heart.
One more little contrast with Philadelphia.
Promise to the overcomers to set within this throne.
As he sat with the Father in his throne. And that Kingdom is going to be set up and it's going to be wonderful display before mountain angels, but there's going to come to an end and it's going to all be folded up.
But the Philadelphia is going to go into the temple of never to go out again.
Eternally a worshiper and the presence of God, enjoying those divine affections and lavishing them upon Christ. Eternal portion, far more than the Kingdom, as wonderful as its display is before men and angels. Eternal portion as presented to the Philadelphia.
The first date verses of Revelation 21 dispensation of distinctions disappeared, don't they? He's called God is All in all, no more June, no more Gentile, but the Church of God, according to the last two verses of Ephesians 3.
Both on is the bride of Christ.
#25 #25.