The Church at Philadelphia

Revelation chapter 3.

Revelation 3 · chapter mention

I hope everybody's been enjoying getting a lot of response online about this series in the book of Revelation.

And I know everybody's what people don't realize, the first three chapters is all about the churches, which is the application for today.

Those churches represent churches today.

There's no difference.

We saw it meant it was a prophetical presentation, but also a practical presentation of what churches are to be today.

And out of the seven churches, we saw Smyrna, the little poor-rich church, poor in physical things, but rich, rich in godly things and God's presence and God's power.

We saw that.

We started with the church at Ephesus, the church that lost its first love.

Then Smyrna didn't have a whole lot physically speaking, but had a whole lot spiritually speaking.

And everything, every time I think of that Smyrna church, I think of my grandparents living with them.

They had very little physically speaking, but they had everything spiritually speaking.

And I was raised under my grandmother and my granddaddy.

My granddaddy was Church of God.

My grandmother was Southern Baptist.

We were at the first Baptist church on Sunday morning, and it was one of those chosen frozen.

And my papa would sit there, and every once in a while the preacher would say something about the blood, he'd go, hmm.

But he wouldn't get too loud because if you did, they'd ask you to leave in that church.

Oh, yeah, that's true.

But on Sunday night, because my grandparents believed that a family that worships together and prays together stays together.

So we'd go to the church of God on Sunday night.

And I like the church of God a little bit better.

Because on Sunday morning I had to sit there and be quiet.

And I couldn't do anything.

If I said anything, my grandmother would pinch me right there.

I still have scars to prove it.

Really, I do.

But but but hey, hey, on Sunday, uh on Sunday night, Church of God, man, my papa'd sit on the front row, he'd get happy, and he'd get up and start dancing and shouting.

And I'll never forget.

I used to say, Papa, papa, can I dance with you?

In the Church of God, but it was awesome.

It was awesome, the liberty there.

So really I'm a I'm a crossbreed.

And a lot of people don't know what I am, so I'm going to explain to you what I am.

I've got Baptist theology, I've got a Pentecostal heart, and I got Jehovah's Witness feet.

I'm a Babdecostal witness.

That's what I am.

So that's what I've been for a long time.

Jerry Farwell, Dr.

Farwell, my mentor, never could figure me out.

But he said, I can't figure him out, I'm just going to turn him loose.

But anyway, we love you, and that's why I love this church.

We've got all different denominations coming, and that's the way it's supposed to be.

Because we have one purpose here.

Well, we have four key core values, but the main one, the foundational one, is clear biblical truth.

And so today we're going to be looking at, notice the title of the message today.

By the way, if you do not have a worship guide, raise your hand.

We want to make sure you have one because you got the outline there.

Anyone?

Okay, good.

But notice I titled it, I've been giving you some catchy titles.

The church hell cannot handle.

The church that hail cannot handle.

Now, in chapters 3, again, we pick up at the church at Philadelphia, verses 7 through 13, and we will take those apart as I go through the message.

But let me remind you that the Bible says, Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18, Jesus said, Upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Now notice gates were used for defensive purposes, not offensive purposes.

That's very important to understand that verse.

A lot of people miss this in that verse.

So literally what Jesus is saying, when I build my church, when I establish my church, that the gates of, hey, the gates of hell cannot stand against my church.

Now that's powerful, church.

In other words, he's saying that, hey, the gates of hell better be alerted.

The church is on the attack.

With that in mind, this is the church out of all seven churches that they were very aware of.

Because this was God's church.

I meant it exemplified all that he was.

So let's look at it.

We don't want to miss it.

This church, above all other churches, is the faithful, true missionary church that followed Jesus Christ.

The church here at Philadelphia was a historical church.

It represents certain types of churches in every age.

But we see this one was the most faithful to Christ.

So let's look at it.

Let's begin at verse 7.

And the first point I want us to look at this morning is the correspondent.

Notice what he said.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shuts it, and shuts, and no man opens.

This letter is for the pastor of the congregation here in the town of Philadelphia.

In all the other letters, Christ gives himself a specific title.

And we saw that in Revelation chapter 1, verses 12 through 17.

Revelation 1:12–17

He is the author.

He's the correspondent here.

You say, why does he give himself those titles in each of the churches?

In every case, the titles he used related to the church's particular situation.

So each church, when he gives, hey, as a correspondent his name and his title, he's dealing with that church personally.

Now that's powerful.

What does that tell me?

That tells me that Jesus Christ will deal with us, CCW, the church at Chelsea Westover, personally.

He is dealing with us personally.

And that gets me excited.

And let's look at what he's saying here.

First of all, I see a couple of things.

I see his sovereign affirmation.

Notice what he says.

His sovereign affirmation in your notes under the correspondent.

First of all, we see his character.

He says, Christ says, look, I am holy.

He says, I am true.

He says, I am the open door.

In fact, this is where the church that I pastored all those years in Tuscaloosa, Open Door Baptist Church, got their name.

It was the church of the open door.

And that's exactly what the church at Philadelphia was.

It was the church of the open door because God had opened the door to this church.

God had provided the opportunities for this church.

Whatever faithfulness and strength the church possesses was directly, hey, directly attributed to who Jesus Christ was and what he did for that church.

Nothing that we accomplish, hey, matters here unless it's done in the power of the Spirit of the living God in honor of exalting Jesus Christ.

Anything else is useless and worthless.

Oh, it can be good works, but it won't be works for eternity, it'll be works for the earthly praise of man instead of the eternal praise of God.

And we sure don't want that.

And that's what he's saying here.

If a church is holy, it's because he is holy.

If a church is standing on the truth, it's because he is true.

And if God opens the door for service, bless God, we better run through it.

Amen?

Because he's the one that does the door opening.

A church that leaves Christ out has nothing because all Christ's power, strength, holiness, and truth that the church will ever have belongs to and is in Christ Jesus.

So, first of all, we see his character.

He's holy.

He's true.

He's powerful.

He's the strength of the church.

He's the foundation of the church.

He's the head of the church.

He's everything the church should be.

That's his character.

In fact, he says that Colossians says he's the head of the church.

Ephesians says that he's the head of the church.

So we see that his sovereign affirmation is that all that I am, the church should be.

Notice the second thing.

Now he deals with his specific attributes.

This is good.

Notice what he says.

He says, He that is holy.

First of all, let me tell you what that means.

He is the holy one.

In other words, literally, this is his deity speaking.

He's literally saying, Hey, I am God.

John 10, 30 says, I and my Father are one.

He's literally saying, I am God.

And God is the foundation of this church.

Not, hey, not some man, but God.

Man, that's powerful.

In fact, as God, he has the right to call his Christians at the church at Philadelphia to be holy.

In fact, notice what he says in 1 Peter 1.15.

I love this verse.

He says, but as he who has called you is holy.

Now notice what he says, but as he who has called you is holy, you also should be holy in all of your conduct, in all of your behavior.

So literally, what he's saying to the church at Philadelphia is, I am holy, and because I am holy, you should be holy.

In fact, not only is he saying you should be, he's saying you are holy if my power, my person of the Holy Spirit of God is dwelling in you.

You have the power to be holy.

I got three or four amens on that.

Because he is holy.

And watch this, we don't have an option.

He's called us to be holy.

Well, you said, well, I just thought he called me to be saved.

Oh, yeah.

But being saved means being holy.

Your testimony.

You are an ambassador of Christ.

You are a visual representation of who he is.

Did you hear what I just said?

He, you and I are a visible representation of who he is.

Wow.

Remember, we talked about that, bringing the kingdom of God to heaven in heaven to earth and in our Lord's prayer.

And how do we do that?

By living Christ-like and godly and holy among who God puts us in front of.

Wow, that's a responsibility, isn't it?

In other words, Christ is holy, and if he has called you and me to be holy, hey, he requires the same holiness from us.

But now notice, by the way, there's a passage of scripture that I haven't preached in a long time.

I need to preach that here.

In Isaiah 6, verse 3, he says, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Isaiah 6:3

And it is repeated in Revelations, and we'll look at it, verse 4, verse 8, and we'll take that verse apart when we get there.

And he says that he is holy and true.

Which brings me to the next characteristic of his character.

Not only is he holy, but he's true.

Look at what he says.

He that is true, Jesus Christ, in the midst of all the error and heresy that's going on here, the false doctrine and everyone's opinion, Christ says, I am the truth.

Now, there's two words in the original language for the word truth.

One is Aletha.

And it literally means that that statement is true.

For example, my pants are black.

That's a true statement.

Would you not agree?

Now, if you're colorblind, you don't count.

But my pants are black, that's true.

But then there's another word in the Greek language, which is used here, Alethanos.

And it means genuine.

It means not a statement, it means it is the absolute reality.

In other words, Jesus is not making a true statement.

Jesus is saying, I am that truth.

That's me.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father except by me.

Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved.

So when you and I look at the word truth here, we are coming head-on, we're having a head-on confrontation with the absolute truth that Jesus is God.

Wow.

Now that'll bring some significance and some teeth to the word of God because he says, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God.

So when you're in that book, the B-I-B-L-E, that's the book for me, you are coming, hey, head-on with a confrontation with the absolute truth of God.

Wow.

That's more than a book, folks.

When somebody tells you that the Bible's just a book, that's a lie.

It's God's word.

It is God.

Wow.

So we see.

In other words, do you know what that means?

You say, well, Pastor Danny, that's narrow-minded.

I'm sorry, I'm narrow-minded.

You say, well, you mean to tell me then the Bible's always right.

Yep.

You mean the Bible doesn't have any errors.

Nope.

Well, that's narrow-minded.

Everybody can't be always right.

I agree, but Jesus is always right.

Hello, you okay out there?

Hey, he's the truth.

There's no lie in him, there's no deception in him, there's no teasing with him.

Man, isn't that exciting?

Wouldn't you like to really?

Somebody said, I'd like to hear the truth for a change.

You just get in the book.

I don't listen to the news because there's nothing truth there.

I go to the book.

The book's always true, and we see that.

Truth is part of his nature.

But notice the third thing he said.

And uh, oh, oh, yeah.

You got to see this first, though.

John 18, 37.

You know what he says?

If you know me, you will know the truth.

If you know me, you will know the truth.

See, you can't know the truth until you've had a confrontation with the truth.

And a lot of people have never had a confrontation with the truth.

They know about the truth, they've heard stories of the truth, they've even read some of the truth, but they've never had a confrontation with the truth.

Because when you have a real confrontation with the truth, it changes you.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he's a new creation.

Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.

You shall know the truth, say it with me, and the truth shall what?

Set you free.

John 8 32.

So we see Jesus is truth.

Sanctify them through thy word.

Thy word is truth.

John 17, 17.

He is that truth.

Notice the third thing he says, though, about his character.

Not only is he holy, not only is he true.

But boy, now we come to.

We saw his two ingredients and attributes of his character, but now we see his control.

Look at what happens.

He that hath the key.

Christ says that I am.

He that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens.

He is quoting Isaiah 22, verse 22.

Isaiah 22:22

The setting there is Eliakim.

Eliakim was the treasure of Hezekiah.

He had been appointed to this very special position.

And Eliakim was the only one that held the keys to Hezekiah's treasure.

No one could open the treasure but Eliakim, the treasurer of Hezekiah, the great king.

So the typology here is very simple.

That Jesus Christ is saying, just as Eliakim was to Hezekiah, I am to God the Father.

I am the one that holds the keys to life.

I'm about to have a spell, my leg's hurting.

But if it wasn't, hey, hey, he says, Behold, I am the one that holds the keys to life and death.

Isn't that what he said in Revelations 1.18?

Behold, I'm he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore, and I hold the keys of death and hell.

He's saying, I'm the one that holds the keys to heaven.

I'm the one that holds the door to heaven.

I'm the one that can open the door.

I'm the one that can close the door.

And no man can shut it.

And once, hey, hey, once I close it, no man can open it.

That's pretty powerful, folks.

That's what he's saying.

That's who I am.

I hold the keys.

I hold the keys to truth.

I hold the keys to holiness.

I hold the keys to opportunity.

I hold the keys to service.

I hold the keys to your testimony.

I'm just writing some things, God.

I hold the keys to your salvation.

In fact, I took that.

Hey, he holds the keys and to the door of salvation.

Listen to what he says.

I am the door.

If any man, hey, enter in, he shall be saved and shall enter into the pastures.

John 10 9.

He holds the keys to the door of salvation.

You can't be saved until he opens the door.

Woo! Amen.

But when he does, behold, now's the time.

Behold, now's the day of salvation.

2 Corinthians 6.2.

You better go through then.

Well, I've got plenty of time.

You don't have plenty of time.

When he calls, you answer.

You'll see that in a minute.

But he also holds the keys to the door of service.

Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, 9?

Oh, I love that.

He says that God has opened a door of unbelievable opportunity for me.

And then he also holds the door to the scriptures.

One of my favorite passages.

Listen to what he says in Luke 24, verse 32, 37.

Luke 24:32

Did not our hearts burn within us?

Woo! You know what we need today?

We need some burning hearts.

We need some hearts that are on fire for God.

You say, well, how do you have a burning heart?

I'll tell you how you have a real confrontation with God, the truth, Jesus Christ.

And when you have that and you allow that truth to become part of you and in you, His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones.

When I couldn't speak, I couldn't help but speak because I had the can't have pets.

I couldn't help but speak the things that I've seen and heard.

When the truth becomes a reality in you, it comes out of you.

You can't have pet.

Somebody said, You're crazy.

I can't have that.

Amen.

It's in me.

It's in me right now.

It's like, whoo, whoo, whoo.

It's there's, hey, look, did not my heart burn within me while, hey, we talk with Jesus?

Now what?

By the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

Now, young preachers, that's how you preach.

Jesus teaches us how to preach.

Open the book and expound him.

Lift him up.

I'll draw all men unto me.

John 12 32.

Amen.

So we see it.

We see it.

In heaven, look at Revelation chapter 5.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

Well, this is good.

So let me say what the word key here represents.

It's a symbol of his sovereign authority and power.

That's what that key represents.

God's ultimate authority and power.

He has it.

You ask me, why do some churches seem to be blessed and some not?

I can answer that.

Because some churches are operating in the flesh, hey, and operating in man's programs instead of allowing God to be the one that's opening the door for service and missions.

They're doing it.

They're trying to kick the doors in, or they're kicking the doors in.

You don't have to kick anything in.

If you're real, gotta open it.

Your problem is you gotta run through it quick.

Well, I'll get around to it.

Not with God.

You wait a little bit, he'll have somebody else.

Somebody run slap over you going through that door.

Amen.

And I don't want anybody running over me.

Bless God.

I want to run through my own door.

I don't want you to have my door.

Amen.

That's my door.

Well, bless God.

Go through it.

Okay, I'm I'm getting there.

No, you better move.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

But do something.

Don't stand still.

The only time I'm still is when I'm sick.

I got two speeds, wide open and dead.

Ask my wife.

So, notice here.

Look at Revelation 5.

This is awesome.

We start unrolling a little bit of the tribulation.

In verse 1, God holds in his hand a book instead of a door with seven seals.

And in that book, he's unfolding the terrible times, and the word terrible times there is a reference to the tribulation.

Look at what he says in Revelation 5, verse 2.

Revelation 5:2

Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?

Now watch verse 3 through 5.

John says, And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the scroll, neither to look on it.

And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the scroll, neither to look on it.

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not.

Whoo! Behold the line of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, the key of David, hath prevailed to open the scroll.

Now who's this line of the tribe of Judah?

It's only one, Jesus Christ.

He can open what no man in the universe can open.

On earth, you say, well, what does this verses mean?

The door to God is opened by Jesus Christ.

Satan and all his angels can't shut it.

It's an open door.

The door of the church, hey, cannot be shut if God's in it.

Upon this rock, I'll build my churches and the gates of hell cannot prevail.

You know what?

Every morning, if God's in this church, when you get up, Satan himself ought to literally get up and say, Oh no, oh no, they're up, they're up, they're up.

Close the gates.

Or if you get up, some churches, you know what he says?

He laughs.

Leave them open.

They're not gonna do anything.

They got a lot of talk, but no zeal.

They talk a lot, they do little.

They got great programs, but nobody's getting saved.

No lives are being changed.

No needs are being met.

But outwardly they look great, but inwardly they're sick.

Hmm.

They're sick.

So we see that right here.

Every opportunity, every missionary effort, every effort of salvation, every door for the gospel of Christ, every opportunity comes from God.

Now the city here, Philadelphia.

Just we don't know a whole lot about it, except it was a little, it was a youngest city.

It was named for brotherly love, Phileo.

Two words.

One's Phileo, which means love, and Adelephos, which means brother.

Pennsylvania is called the city of brotherly love, taken from the word Philadelphia.

And Phileo.

So, and by the way, we don't know a lot about the city except that it was heavy in agriculture and grapes.

In fact, we know grapes was their main aquaculture business.

Because let me tell you what I found out, the Greek god Dionysus, the god of wine, became the city's main god.

Now, here's the problem with the city of Philadelphia and the church area.

It was on a rock, built kind of on a rock, high and lifted up, in some rocks.

But it was volcanic.

There was volcanoes, three or four major volcanoes there, and they were erupt quite often.

So the people were constantly having to run out of the city because the earthquakes would destroy their places they lived in the city.

They'd have to come back and rebuild.

So it was a city of fear.

It was a city of insecurity.

They never knew when a volcano would erupt.

They never knew when an earthquake would erupt.

So that's the setting.

And you need to understand that context as we go through the rest of these verses, and you'll see why Jesus is writing the letter and using some of the terminology that he's using writing to this church.

That's very important that you understand that.

That's why I brought it to your attention.

But the second thing I want us to look at this morning is the church in verse 7.

We do not know anything about the church other than it was named the Brotherly Love and that God's hand was all over it, and he had opened a door in a pagan place, a major pagan place, he had a light that was doing a great job for him.

Now, chances are Paul and the church of Sardis and where Lydia was, and the again, we all, we really, most theologians believe you go all the way back to the first church, the church at Ephesus, who was, we called it the mother church, had representation coming out of that church to go to all these other seven churches, that it probably had a raiment from that church to help start this church, or possibly the church in Sardis, where Lydia was, that we know was used mightily to start the church.

But anyway, and it could have been Paul.

Timothy, we're really not sure.

We don't know, so we can't say.

But we know, but what I can say is God opened the door for this church to be planted.

That I know.

And it was his church, one that he never brought any rebuke against.

The church at Philadelphia was the church of the open door.

And it had an open door to God.

But why?

1 Timothy 2.5, there's one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

It was God's church.

God's church.

Notice the third thing I want us to look at.

Look at the accommodation.

Look at the people at Philadelphia, the church at Philadelphia, their consecration.

It was unbelievable.

I want us to look at two things.

I want us to look at their performance.

First, let's look at their performance.

Notice what he says.

One, verse eight, I know thy works.

Behold, I've set before thee an open door and no man can shut it.

Philadelphia had a wide open door.

Christ had opened it.

He opens the door to salvation, to the kingdom, to service, to witnessing, to the mission field.

He has all the keys.

He has the keys of hell and death.

But notice Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, verse 9, for a great door, hey, and an effectual door is open unto me.

1 Corinthians 16:9

Now listen to me.

God really drove this home in my study this week as I was going through this passage.

Every Christian will have doors of opportunity to serve.

Are you listening?

Say, uh-huh, preacher.

Every Christian will have a door open to serve.

Every Christian will have an open door to share the good news, the gospel.

Every one of us in here and listening online has a group of people that we influence, whether it's our children, our immediate family, our whole family in a whole, our work arena, our school friends, our ball team friends.

Wherever we are, we have a door open.

I can go ahead and help you.

Hey, hey, the door for you to share Jesus is already open.

Wherever you, God has placed you.

That's a door of opportunity to share the gospel.

And for you not to do that, you're being disobedient to God.

Why do you think you see these now about everywhere we go?

Jesus is awesome.

We're not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And everywhere I go, when I'm in line, especially at the cashier or people talking, I make sure that Jesus is awesome is up on my band, just like that, and I say, here, how are you doing?

We were or my life and death track.

Monday night we were eating in Montgomery.

And this uh her name was uh uh Alice.

Alice can't remember her last name, but she was waiting on us, and the other guys, the preachers are picking at her, and I said, Alice, let me show you something.

They they said something, one of the preachers, which is we always is a good thing to do when you get ready to pray over your meal, you ask the waitress, let me tell you how a good way to to be a witness.

When you get ready to pray, ask your waitress or waiter, is there anything I can pray for you about?

Good thing to do.

Really is.

And so one of the preachers that did that, she said, Oh yes, and and I need this, but the Lord's providing, and she said, The Lord's providing.

Now, can I say something?

A lost person doesn't say the Lord's providing.

So I picked up on that immediately and I said, uh, Alice, you must know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

She said, Absolutely.

I said, Well, let me show you something.

Jesus is awesome.

And she said, Oh, oh, I said, can I tell you why he's awesome?

Because there's other people in the restaurant.

Actually, it's the only restaurant open in Montgomery Monday night because of the storm.

I said, letter A, he's all sufficient.

Letter W, he's the word.

Letter E, he's eternal.

Letter S, he's the seeking saving.

And I went through the cross day.

She said, Wow, that's great.

I said, Would you like to have this band?

I said, she said, can I really?

I said, yeah, will you wear it?

She said, well, I wear it, give it here.

Then she said, Ha ha, Jesus is awesome.

Now that's what I'm talking about, folks.

It's not hard.

It's not hard.

But sharing Jesus, hey, the door of sharing's there.

The door of service.

Hey, if you're part of this church, and you are, whether you're a covert member or not, you come regularly, you're part, there's a place for service in this church.

And you say, well, where do you want me to serve?

Hey, that's not up to me.

That's up to you.

You just find a place of service, try, try all of them.

Try, let me tell you where I know I'm not, but I thank God for those that are called to work with bed babies.

I'm not.

I'm sorry, I'm not.

You don't want me working with your bed baby.

Because when you come to pick up your bed baby, I'll be crying more than the baby.

So you don't want me working with your bed baby.

Amen.

I told my wife, if you'll handle them till they're about three, I'll take them from there.

Amen.

And that's kind of what I do with my grandkids, isn't it?

They all, she does all the stuff, and and then all of a sudden they'll come, she'll come in, she'll say, Nana, they'll say, Poppy.

Because Poppy does the play and they do in the take care of.

See, that's the way it works.

And uh I'm joking, I'm joking, but not much.

But that's what I do.

Amen.

Susan says, You need to change a diaper.

Oh, arthritis is set in.

It never failed when she would leave me with the girls.

They would you just go on, don't okay.

You don't want me to tell that one.

I had a good way of changing diapers.

Turn on the faucet in the tub.

That wasn't too good.

But anyway, all right.

But we see the faithful witness here.

It's awesome.

Paul says, hey, you gotta be ready.

You gotta go.

But the tragedy is a lot of people don't.

Now let me show something this verse.

God gave me this yesterday morning.

This is not in your notes.

I'm sorry, but I I couldn't help it.

I I really had a Pentecost spell right by myself yesterday.

Watch this.

Well, notice what he says.

There's there's five things.

We want you to write it down.

This is this is not a rabbit.

This is right from the birth.

First of all, look at the power who opens the door.

Look at what he says.

Jesus says, Hey, I know thy works.

Behold, he said, I, underline the word I, I have set before thee an open door.

God is the one that has the power who opens the door.

Can I get an amen?

Notice the second thing.

Know the prompting.

The power of the door being opens, God Himself.

Notice the prompting in the opening of the door.

I have set before thee an open door.

I have set before you an open door.

Every one of us has an opportunity and has a door that has been presented to us for us to go through it.

Right there.

But I used the word prompting.

In other words, hey, he opens it and he prompts us to go through, but we've got to walk through.

He's not going to shove us through.

Can I get an amen?

And then notice the other thing, the priority.

Look at the word behol there.

Anytime you see the word behold when Christ is talking, he's literally saying, This is a top priority of mine.

Behold.

In other words, I'm opening a door for you, Danny.

Pastor Danny.

Now go through it.

Somebody say that's good.

I will.

Thank you.

Behold, take priority.

This is high on my list.

You better listen and you better do it.

That's what he's talking about.

And then notice the third, I mean, the priority.

Beho, and then the fourth thing, the privilege.

You and I have the privilege to walk through that door.

Can I get an amen?

We have the privilege to serve God through the door he's opened.

That's awesome.

And then the last thing is, uh-oh, no man can shut it.

There will be problems.

That door, hey, just because he opened the door doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

Hello.

It's not going to be easy.

Hey, I know you look at this and we look at this, and people come in here now and they look at this.

Hey, I can remember when right back there, right back there on that, I call it the front row of when we started this church, there sit David, Christy, Susan, and me.

Four of us.

Four of us.

And we were looking around saying, God's going to fill this place with people one day.

Because God's opened this door.

God's opened this door.

We didn't have a clue.

We didn't have a clue how it was all going to come.

Then Bob and Miss Jewell showed up.

Carrie and Sonia showed up.

Next thing you know, my neighbors, Rosemarie and I will show up and it just starts multiplying.

Why?

Because he opened the door to the community.

And this crazy preacher thought about an ice cream truck.

And some of y'all thought I was crazy when I said that.

And now we're noted all over this county for the ice cream truck.

Yeah, I'm crazy.

I agree.

But hey, I don't do it unless God opens the door.

God opens the door, we got to run through it.

We have that privilege.

Will there be problems?

Absolutely.

Hey, can I say something?

There's we average 250, 300 people every week.

Can I say something?

There's 250 to 300 problems in our church.

Y'all didn't get that, or if you got it, you didn't want to say anything.

You didn't like it.

We all are a problem sometimes.

Amen?

We all are.

But aren't you glad God loves us?

In spite of our faults, our weaknesses, our flaws.

All our righteousness is as filthy rags.

You with me?

So, so we're going to deal with problems.

We're going to have disagreements.

We're going to have all kinds of stuff.

And Satan's laughing when that's happening.

But I got news for you.

If we handle it Christ-like and sit down and talk it out every time, if there's all with your brother, you go talk to them about it.

You don't talk about them, you talk to them.

Amen.

Don't, let's say that again, preacher.

You don't talk about them, you talk to them.

And you work it out.

Amen.

That's the way Susanna work.

Now sometimes it takes me, I get my pride hurt, and I may not talk to her for two days.

But that's my fault.

That's not her fault.

That's me.

And I'll tell you why I don't want to talk sometimes, because I've got to apologize.

That's not fun either.

So I'm the more I'm growing, the more I'm learning.

If I do right, I don't have to apologize as much.

I like that better.

Amen?

Yeah, sensitive.

That's right.

We men don't know what that means.

Are you in the doghouse there?

Okay.

No, all right.

I'm just thinking.

I'm just wondering.

I don't know if you're trying to get out or what, but okay.

All right.

Oh, you learning.

We're learning together.

All right.

But now notice.

Notice what he says: a faithful witness.

God opens that door.

Wasn't those nuggets right there pretty good about that verse?

Wasn't that good nuggets?

All right, now notice the second thing, faithful raiment.

That has a little strength in verse 8.

A little strength.

Now, let me tell what.

That's two things these means here.

First of all, it means they're small in number, not a huge number of people.

And it also means that you can't do what I've asked you to do when I open this door for you in your own strength.

Amen.

You can't do it in your own strength.

We are not sufficient in ourselves, but our sufficiencies in God.

2 Corinthians 3.5.

Can I get an amen?

I can do all things through who?

Christ who strengthens me.

So that's what he, that's exactly what he is saying there.

He's saying that you have a faithful raiment there.

That 2 Corinthians 12.9, I love this verse.

His grace is sufficient, 2 Corinthians 12.9.

And he said unto me, read it with me, church.

This is a great verse.

My grace.

My strength.

Therefore.

Let me ask something.

Did you just understand that last part?

Gladly will I boast in my infirmity.

In other words, you're going to get excited about your problems.

I'm not there yet.

I'm being honest.

I'm not there yet.

I don't like my problems.

And I sure don't pray for patience.

Tribulation works patience.

Don't pray for patience.

Tribulation comes.

I have enough tribulation without praying for it.

Can I get an amen?

So.

What is he saying here?

He's saying when you and I learn to work in his strength through the power of the Holy Spirit, when our problems come, and the problems come, why?

Now, what's this?

For one or two reasons for the Christian.

One, the problems come because you're not going through the door.

Ooh, that's good.

Or two, the problems come because you're going through the door.

And Satan's bringing opposition.

But either way, they're going to come.

It's better for them to come when you're going through the door than staying on the other side.

Amen?

Because remember, in the storm, woo! Man, in the storm, Jesus said, get in the boat.

We're going to the other side.

Now all hell broke loose.

But they still went to the other side.

Don't forget that.

So that's very important we understand that right there.

Then notice the third thing.

They were faithful to the doctrine.

They were faithful to the word of God.

The faithful church is true to the word of God.

We don't stand on philosophy.

We don't stand on sociology.

We don't stand on poverty and social programs, which are good programs, but that's not what our church is built on.

We don't stand on religious ideology.

We don't stand on sex education.

We don't stand on humanism.

We stand on the word of God.

Now guess what?

When you stand on the word of God, a lot of those programs, especially the social programs, will be there.

And because everywhere Jesus went, he met the needs.

And a lot of times he met the needs before he shared the word.

But he always shared the word.

If all you do is meet needs and don't share the gospel, you're just a social program.

Why do you think we're so excited about being a distributing center here?

Because I know what our association does.

You can't get clothes, you can't get food, you can't get anything until you fill out a form and they get to know you.

You sit down with a trained counselor and they share Jesus with you.

Now that's awesome.

And that's what we do, and that's what we will do.

And then they were faithful to the word of God.

And then number four, they were, hey, faithful to the name of God.

Woo! Look at Matthew 10, 22.

Jesus says, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

Now in Acts chapters 3 and 4, we have the example about Jesus' name.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

There's empowering healing in his name.

That's why we pray for people.

That's why we pray for Vicki and we prayed for Patsy.

And Vicki's got cancer.

So I want you to be lifting her up.

I had cancer.

Yes.

So be praying for her that God will continue to keep healing her body.

Patsy's got some problems.

How many of you got some physical problems here?

Come on.

Come on.

All right.

Keep your hands up.

Right now.

Every head bow, every eye closed.

Keep your hands up.

My knees hurting.

I'm my hands up.

Lord, right now in the name of Jesus, your Jehovah Rathi, the God that healeth, we ask you right now to touch our bodies and to heal us in Jesus' name.

And all God's people said, Amen.

Now I believe that.

I believe there's healing in the name of Jesus.

How do I believe that?

Watch this.

Look at what he says in Acts 3.6.

Then Peter said to the man that was crippled and begging for money, silver and gold have I none.

But such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Woo! And then verse 16 says, and his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong.

Now look at Acts chapter 4, verse 7.

Acts 4:7

And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name have you done this?

Peter responded.

Verse 10, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, boy, he puts it right in their face, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you well.

Verse 10, the name of Christ brought the healing.

And then the capstone is in verse 12 where he says, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved, but through the precious holy name of Jesus.

There's power in his name.

Amen.

There's power in his name.

And a church that it lifts up the name of Jesus will be a church that is exalted by Jesus.

The problem, verse 9.

Then we see the problem.

Behold, I will make them of a synagogue of Satan who 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.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

Wow.

First of all, he identifies the persecutors.

You know what he says?

Remember Smyrna, the other little church that didn't get a rebuke?

It was the poor little rich church that we looked at.

Remember the same Jews were there?

Same ones.

They were Jews, but they hated Christ and hated Christianity.

They hated it.

So here we see he calls them out again.

Because he said, you know, these Jews say they're of God.

They say they are of my church, the church of God.

But here, Jesus, let me tell you what Jesus does.

Now you'd say, you think Pastor Danny's hard preaching.

Listen to what Jesus said.

He said, you know these Jews that claim to be part of my church, the church of God?

He said, let me tell you about them.

The liars, they're pretenders, they're fakes.

And they lift up a false God.

Why?

Now that's what Jesus says about them.

And then I thought to myself, man, let's do a little research here on that.

Because and listen to what Paul said in Romans 2, 28 and 29.

Paul said, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, verse 29, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly.

In other words, you can profess all day that you're a Christian and you can be a phony, you can be a fake, hey, you can be a liar, but until God comes into your heart and radically changes you, turns you upside down, changes your character, changes your mind, changes your thinking, changes your life, you're a hypocrite.

You're a false pretender.

I don't care if you are a Jew.

That's what he said.

Ouch! Ouch! But then he gives them a promise.

Oh man, this is so good.

This is so good, folks.

We see the performance, the four things they were, then the problem.

But then he says, Here's the promise, verse 10, 11.

Because I have kept the word of my patience, I will also 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.

Woohoo! All right.

You ready?

This is what you've been waiting for, a lot of you.

Oh, teach me about the tribulation.

Teach me about the bold judgments.

Alright.

You ready?

We're fixing to get ready.

We're gonna get started.

First of all, notice what he says.

What is the hour of temptation that will try everyone on the earth?

No doubt about it, it's the tribulation.

Let me tell you why.

It is the tribulation that is displayed here in Revelation.

Does the church go through the tribulation?

Christ says, now watch, look what he says right here in this verse.

I will keep thee from the hour of temptation.

That is a tremendous promise.

It's saying that the church will not go through the tribulation.

Now, Paul's affirmation.

Listen to what Paul says about this.

1 Thessalonians 1 10.

Paul says, Jesus delivered us from the wrath to come.

We will be kept from that hour.

We have no place in the tribulation.

The church, now watch this, was not a part of the 79 weeks of Daniel.

So why should it be in the seventh, the seventh week here?

It's not.

The church is on earth in Revelation 2 and 3, chapters 2 and 3.

Now watch.

In chapters 4 and 5, it appears in heaven.

And in chapter 6, the tribulation begins on earth.

The church is in heaven, not in the tribulation.

Now I know some of you may want to disagree, that's okay.

You have the right to be wrong.

I'm joking.

I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking.

I got a good friend that believes that we're, he's a post-millennialist.

I asked him, I said, Tom, let me ask something.

You think then if we're going to go through everything, after God's promise we're not, the church is not here.

So what are we going to do?

How are we going to, are we going to, at the end of the seven years, we're going to go right up to heaven and come right back on the white horse?

He said, Well, I hadn't thought about that.

I said, that's going to be a fast Lord's Supper.

Hello.

Just, I'm just thinking logically.

I didn't sound that smart, but I believe the book.

Now watch.

Here's what it said.

Now this gets good.

Look at Christ's assurance about this.

Christ says to the church.

Now look what he says.

Since you've been faithful, I will keep you from the hour of temptation.

Now, by using the word hour here, great word.

Christ is referring to a time period.

The tribulation will be a seven-year period.

Christians won't go through it because it is intended.

Now here's the purpose of the tribulation: to judge those who dwell on the earth.

Our citizenship is where?

In heaven.

Philippians 3.20.

Do I have it up there?

Philippians 3.20 tells us that our citizenship is in heaven.

So in verse, in fact, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now watch.

That means wait for Him to come take us out in the rapture.

Alright?

Now notice, he will take Christians out in this verse, verse 11, of the world before the tribulation comes.

Now look at the word quickly.

It means suddenly.

It doesn't mean soon, it means suddenly.

Christ is saying, I will come suddenly.

His coming is imminent.

The last thing that Christ did was to ascend into heaven in Acts.

From the mount of what?

Zion.

So what he said when he ascended, why stand ye here gazing at me?

Don't you know that I will come again in the same way?

I will come back.

So the next thing on the prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church.

And it could happen suddenly.

It will happen suddenly.

Anytime.

In fact, it could happen before I got through preaching.

Woo! Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Can you imagine?

That'd be a way to go.

Me preaching all of a sudden, we're gone.

I'll be going up hollering, Jesus is awesome! I'll still be preaching.

Amen.

I know it.

So, and we'll do, I'll deal more with that as we go, but I had to wet your appetite and get you excited.

All right.

Now let's finish it up.

Number four, the command.

Look at verse 11.

Hold fast, which thou hast no man take thy crown.

Now, what that means basically this, and I will explain it more when we get to the beam of judgment seat.

So I don't want to take a lot of time here.

That means that you and I can lose crowns that we've earned.

Okay?

We don't lose our salvation.

1 Corinthians 3, verses 11 through 17 tells us that.

1 Corinthians 3:11–17

Because sometimes our works are hay, wood, and stubble.

Okay?

And basically, let me just put it as, and I really have studied this for years.

Here's what that means.

If you live faithfully for God, going through the doors he opens, walking in the Spirit of God, being obedient to God, if you're willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the Lamb.

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.

Now, what that means for the Christian is that you're going to lose rewards.

But if you're faithful, you're not going to lose your rewards.

But if you allow sin to creep back into your life and you start doing things you ought not to be doing, you're losing rewards.

That's the simplest way to put it.

And now let me give you a few scriptures that I think can really help us understand that.

2 John verse 8 says, look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

You can actually again lose your crowns.

But John is not talking about losing salvation.

That's not even an issue.

Paul says that if our works add up to wood, hay, and stubble, you will be saved, but lose rewards.

1 Corinthians 3.12 and 15.

And then look at Colossians 2.18.

Let no man beguile you of your rewards.

The world and the flesh would like to rob us of our rewards.

Christ says to the church at Philadelphia, you, hey, you've got a reward.

Now hang on to it, don't lose it.

Hold on fast.

Stay faithful.

That's what he's saying to CCW.

Alright?

Then number five, the counsel.

Look at his counsel to us.

Him that overcometh, the one who believes in Jesus Christ, 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.

I don't understand.

You can't read this without getting it unbelievably excited.

And the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my gun, and I will write upon him my new name, and that he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith.

Do you understand what he just said?

Oh, do you understand?

No, you don't, because you'd be saying, whoa, yes, oh, yes.

You're gonna get a, hey, you're gonna be put in heaven.

And let me tell you what what the word here, pillar means.

It means, and it stands for the conqueror.

Pillar equals power and strength.

In other words, he's saying that you and I will have power in eternity.

Hey, we'll have power and strength, and we will rule with Jesus Himself.

You understand that, folks?

Some believe we may have a name written on a pillar.

David, I don't know about that.

That'd be a lot of pillars.

And that's okay.

Hey, hey, but what I do know is that, hey, we're gonna have our name written down.

And what I do know, we hey, hey, our not only are we gonna have our name written down, but we're gonna have the name of the new city written down on us.

The new Jerusalem.

And let me tell you what else that pillar stands for.

Permanence.

Heaven is permanent, earth is temporary, temporary, excuse me.

Rewards, hey, hey, rewards will, hey, we want to be rewarded for our faithfulness.

Our name's gonna be written down in heaven, whether it's on a temple, I mean on a pillar or not, but we're gonna have the honor to rule and reign with him and help him, and then we're gonna have his name, the new Jerusalem, written down on us.

Wherever?

It won't be a bracelet.

I still think Jesus also is gonna be in there somewhere.

Probably tattooed on my head.

But uh, but really, and then verse 12 he says, he shall go out and no more.

Remember, I told you about how they had to run in and run back and rebuild everything?

He said, When we get to heaven, you don't have to worry about anything else.

Your fear's over, your insecurity's over.

Hey, you're safe forever.

You're gonna dwell with me forever.

And how do I know?

Because my name's written on you.

And here's the thing, I don't know.

Hey, his name's gonna be written on us.

New Jerusalem's gonna be on us, the new Jerusalem's gonna be on us.

Our name's gonna be on a pillar, possibly, or or somewhere.

I don't really understand that, to be honest with you.

But what I do understand is our name's gonna be the same as Jesus' name.

And you say, Well, what's that gonna be?

I don't know.

In fact, Revelation chapter 19, I don't know what he's gonna call me.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

I don't know if he's gonna call us Jesus.

I don't know, but look, this gets me excited.

Hey, hey, the name of God's written down on us, the name of God's city, and then the name of Christ.

Look, when he says, Will write upon him my new name.

He says, My new name.

Look at this.

His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a new name written that no man knows but he himself.

That's what he says.

And I thought about that.

I don't know what it's gonna be.

But it's gonna be Jesus' new name.

I don't know what that's gonna be.

But it's gonna be.

But I can't wait.

I can't wait.

Can you?

And I close with this.

Whoo! That's good stuff.

That's good stuff.

Now that ought to keep you from worrying about dying.

Because you ain't gonna die.

Amen.

Let me tell you what I figured out.

Now y'all gonna think I'm weird.

I was praying this week.

Christy, you need to hear this.

I was thinking about all my friends that have gone on before me, all my family.

And I thought to myself, all this that I'm preaching about their experience.

How can I be sad?

How can I be sad?

Denson and his quartet's gonna be with us.

Is it next Sunday?

You don't want to miss next Sunday.

Say up Sunday morning right before I preach.

And they're gonna sing my song.

Wish you were here.

Can't wait.

That's the old one to you can only imagine.

Back in my younger days, that was the song about heaven.

Wish you were here.

But you know what I was thinking?

All my friends, all my loved ones, they're they're they're up there, and they know.

I say they know that maybe they don't know when the rapture's coming.

No man knows, so they may not know.

Jesus may get up one day and God says, Jesus today.

We don't know.

Let me tell you what I do know.

What I do know is when the last Gentile gets saved, Jesus is coming back.

That I know.

When I don't know, who I don't know, but I do know he's coming.

So you know when that last person gets saved and bows their head and asks the Lord to come in, God's gonna say to Jesus, the son, go get my bride.

Now let me tell you what I was thinking.

When I married Susan, she was a bird.

When she married me, she took my name.

Susan.

Not Susan Bird, but Susan Love.

We're one.

Well, the moment you got saved, you took his name.

And you became the bride.

And one day, ladies and gentlemen, the trumpet's gonna sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord and forever be with him.

Comfort one another with these words.

Why?

I've got a new name.

I've got to sing it with me, church.

I've got a new name.

I've got his name.

And one day we'll know what it is.

And my beloved ones already there.

Know that name.