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When will the Lord see me and Thursday?
And never lasted.
That night are blinding.
The sound we heard.
The progress was where you're going to play some sleep again. Strange.
Laughing.
Right.
When we let them show me.
Some time.
Or.
Till our hearts come on, we cry.
Good morning.
And we're not sure.
No hard disk for our home shall be.
No longer.
In the.
MMM.
That we have learned to love.
Last round falls off in the rain.
I'm waiting for us and your hair.
Get out quickly.
Come again?
So may our hearts love our that day.
And two, and wearing grace on them straight.
Continue thus, Lord God, man.
Got it.
N.
Made in, uh, Revelation chapter 22.
00:05:08
Verse 12.
First praise. Behold, I come quickly.
Verse 17.
And the Spirit and the Bride say come.
And let's hear that here they come, and let him that as a thirst come.
Verse 20.
He which testifies these things that surely I come quickly. Amen.
Even so.
Come Lord Jesus.
Revelation chapter 3.
And suggested we read from around verse 9.
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
And that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name. He 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 saith thee. Amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works.
But thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou Wert 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 it. I am rich and increase, and have need of nothing, and knoweth 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 mayst be rich and white raiment.
That thou mayst be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint mine eyes with anoint thine eyes with. I saw that thou mayst see as many as I love, I rebuke and 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 Sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to fit with me in my throne.
Even as I also overcame, and I'm set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.
Before we go on with this ninth verse, I would just like to make a comment about the previous verse in the last statement of it, which is the Lord's commendation of approval to the assembly at Philadelphia. And that they had kept His word and not denied His name. And as we've already said in these meetings, isn't that what we really covet, brethren? The Lord's approval, not the approval of man, not the approval of other Christians even.
But the approval of the Lord. And so he looked at this company. They had little power, little strength, but, uh, they were seeking to go on with the resources that they had and to keep his word and not deny his name. But I'd just like to for a moment notice the order. And I thought of it in connection with what our brother Ron brought before us in the address, in connection with the list of things that Paul gave in Timothy, where he said, thou hast fully known my doctrine.
00:10:01
Manner of life and so on. I sometimes said it's been helpful in your study of the Word of God to notice that when God gives a list of two or more things, there's always an important order to the lift He has given. You know, I might list certain things and you might ask me why I listed them in that order, and there may be really no purpose. I might have just listed them as they came to mind, or there may have been no real order of importance, just the number of things that I listed.
But God doesn't list things haphazardly. There's always an order, and I'm afraid the tendency of our hearts is to, especially today, is to reverse the order of what we have here in this commendation. It doesn't say here that they didn't deny His name and kept His word. That's not what it says. Timothy didn't or Paul didn't say to Timothy, Thou has fully known my manner of life and doctrine.
No, there was a basis, there was a foundation with the apostle Paul.
He did have a pious manner of life. You look at his life and it was a pious Christian life, but it was based on solid doctrine because there are many and I've heard it said, well, there are many Christians who don't go along the Lord's table. We're not in fellowship with. And they put us to shame as to their personal piety and manner of life. And I have to hang my head and admit that that's true. But notice, it's the doctrine that Paul put first. Notice here it's.
They kept his word and not denied his name. Now just hold your finger here and bear with me a moment.
But go back to the 138 Psalm.
Psalm 138 and I just want to read the last part of verse 2.
For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Now here we get the same order, brethren. It's the Word 1St and then the name. And I used to ponder why he's magnified His word above his name. But I just offer this, that you know, in Christian circles there are many things that are done in the name of the Lord Jesus. But I'm afraid when we go to this book, we find they're done without the sanction of the word.
And brethren were never justified in doing anything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Without the authority of the Word of God for what we do, we profess to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are others who will say that tomorrow morning right here in the city of Richmond and in the province of British Columbia, that they meet in the name of the Lord Jesus. But when I go to this book, I find He's magnified His word above His name. We cannot claim to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus if we haven't sought grace to follow the man bearing the picture of water that we spoke of.
Earlier today, sometimes people say, well, the only thing that matters is that souls get saved, that the name of Christ is made known in the gospel. Now, brethren.
It's wonderful to make known the name of the Lord Jesus in the gospel, but if you go out to make known the name of the Lord Jesus in the gospel, it must be in a way that conforms to the Word of God. Can I bring this down a little, another step? Sometimes in the assembly things arise, difficulties and questions have to be taken up, and sometimes the initial reaction is something has to be done for the glory of the Lord to straighten out this problem.
But brethren, he's magnified his word above his name. We must go to We can't profess to act in the name of the Lord Jesus unless we have the authority for the of the word of God for what we do.
If a question rises, a problem rises like a rose at Corinth, what do we do? We act in the name of the Lord Jesus. But we go to 1St Corinthians 5 and we say, here's the word, here's the authority for acting in his name. And so I just say that as a burden of my heart. And I know there are young people here and you hear these things from your Christian friends in other circles and fellowship, but be careful. They kept His word. That is vital, that is.
Utmost we must keep his word, It must be the doctrine, they continued steadfastly.
In the apostles doctrine, and that was the basis for fellowship, for breaking of bread, for prayers. And so it's vital, brethren. And again I say, don't we covet the Lord's commendation that He gives to this little assembly at Philadelphia? They kept his word and had not denied his name.
There are three things that.
00:15:00
Characterize these Philadelphian church.
That the Lord speaks of in this verse, and you've mentioned two of them. And remember, we had shadows. We closed the meeting before that. Uh, the Church of Philadelphia marks that period in the church's history where there was a great recovery of the truth that had was once delivered to the Saints in the 1800s. And there are three things that characterized the Philadelphia Church of the same three things that characterized the Saints that were connected with that divine movement.
And that is first of all, a little strength and also that they kept his word and did not deny his name. And having a little strength really was is what flows is the power could be translated power, but it's what flows out of communion. So there were ones who knew what it was to abide in Christ and to live in communion. And more than that, it says that they kept his word. That means that that that that would be something that characterized them as.
Being diligent in the Word of God. They were characterized by being diligent in the scriptures and notice kept my word as more than just knowing gets into the practice of the life. And then the third thing is not denied my name.
And this will, you know, when the when the Lord's name is used in Scripture, it's in a couple of different ways. One is that it could imply his authority. And also it also is used in a sense to speak of character.
A good name is to be sought after and so on, and I believe that's the thought that's mentioned here. They did not deny his name. That is, they had the character of Christ and their lives. They were Christ like.
And this was a beautiful element to live in and to have fellowship in among the Saints. No wonder they were, uh, Philadelphia means, uh, brotherly love. And so it was a, a, a beautiful time in the church's history. And isn't it striking as you read through these seven churches, we now come to one and only one where the Lord does not call them to repent.
Isn't that striking?
Proverbs chapter 23, the term is used three times in that chapter, my son and in verse 15 it says my son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. And my son in that character really speaks of the builder of the family name. He's characterized of the as one that walks in wisdom and is building upon the family name as it were honoring that name of the Lord Jesus.
And so, you know, these dear ones, they had to go back to the point of departure. And our brother brought before us that the point of departure was a setting aside of the word of God. And so except they went back to the word of God and sought to get back to those first principles and to understand the truth of God and to search it out. And I believe too, to repent, uh, really in a public way to confess the failure. Then there wouldn't have been that recovery as in a strong measure as there was.
I'll just call attention to Daniel Chapter 9 and it says there it's good to remember in verse five, it says we have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. And so if there's any departure at all from the word of God, then we don't live as true sons of God. We don't value that which he is committed to us to, uh, entrusted to us to uh, hold fast and to hold dear.
In this scene, and that's where its strength there, as you said, could be translated power. And that's the same word that is used in the original language in chapter 4 of Acts when it says that there was great power upon them, the apostles did miracles and so on in the early church. So it's the same power of the Spirit of God, but it's a little power. As you said, they didn't go back to the primitive church, but there was a return to 1St principles.