Persevere and Keep the Word

Transcript

GR 1992
02/12/2017
Persevere and Keep the Word
Revelation 3:7-14
Gil Rugh

We're going to the book of Revelation in your Bibles, Revelation 3. We're looking at the evaluation by the only One whose evaluation really matters, that's the Lord of the church, Jesus Christ. He is evaluating His churches, noting in them things that He approves and commends and things that are wrong and He rebukes. It's a mixture and every church is evaluated individually, and the evaluation is of the church and of course of each individual person within the church. And we have found variation.

There are three churches that receive both commendation and condemnation. Just three of the seven. They are commended for certain things that Christ approves of, and they are also rebuked for certain things that are unacceptable. It was the church at Ephesus that had good things, but they had left their first love. The first church was the church at Ephesus.

Then the church at Pergamum is in chapter 2, beginning with verse 12. And that church had good things, they had been faithful through persecution and so on, but they were also tolerating false teaching. There was a group known as the Nicolaitans who were repeating the heresies of Balaam, the Old Testament false prophet, and were corrupting the worship and practice of God's people in the church.

You are at the church at Thyatira beginning in Revelation 2:18. Again, they had things they were commended for—their love, their faith, their service, their perseverance. And they were growing spiritually. But they were tolerating a false prophetess, a woman who claimed to be a prophet from God and she was corrupting the worship of God's people and also the conduct of God's people.

So, those three churches—Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira—received both commendation and rebuke. Two of the churches received condemnation but no approval. One of them we have looked at, one of them will be the last church we look at.

The church at Sardis, the first part of Revelation 3, beginning with verse 1. The church had no word of commendation from the Lord of the church. Sad condition. He was rather abrupt in verse 1 when he said, “He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this, I know your deeds.” Other churches He went on to say some of the things that He approved of and commended them for. “I know your deeds, you have a name that you are alive but you are dead.” That was, I'm sure, a shock that set that congregation back. And then the church at Laodicea which will be our next study after this week, and it receives no commendation, a word of approval from the Lord.

There are two churches that received only approval, no rebuke. Those would be the ones you would say, if you want to model your church after, they would be two great ones. The church at Smyrna beginning in Revelation 2:8 was encouraged by Christ, commended by Him, but there is no condemnation.

And now we come to Revelation 3:7, the church at Philadelphia. And it, like the church at Smyrna, has no word of rebuke or condemnation, just approval. It is interesting, both the churches that have no rebuke are churches that are going through difficulty. They are not the churches you would pick out to say, there is a great church, there is a church that is reaching the masses, there is a church that is getting things done. The church at Smyrna, if you look back at Revelation 2:9, “I know your tribulation, your poverty,” the blasphemy, those speaking against the church and making their life difficult. This is a church going through trials and difficulty, characterized by poverty. They might be looked upon as a weak, poor church. It is nice that all those people that don't have much that are struggling to get by, but I would rather be part of a church that gets things done and is going somewhere. But that's not the church at Smyrna. And it is not going to get any better, it is going to get worse.

Then you come to the church at Philadelphia and it's a little longer letter and there is no rebuke for them. But they are not necessarily what you would think as a church of power and significance and importance because in verse 8, “you have a little power, I know your works,” your deeds, “that you have little power.” This is not a church that you would think of as let's go and find out what they are doing, what's the secret of their success, why are they such a strong significant church. We ought to at least take to heart, the two churches that have no rebuke are the two churches we might say are the poor, the suffering, the church that looks weak.

And we will remind ourselves as we look into this, we've been back to Zechariah and looked at some of the prophecies there that relate to the message of these churches in Revelation 3-4. And in Zechariah 4 God reminded people,” not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of hosts.” So we come to the church at Philadelphia, it may not look like a great church of the time but the evaluation of the Lord of the church is, this is a church we would want to emulate.

There is something to be said, difficulty, trial, hardship serve to focus our attention. You know when a major trial comes into your life, no matter what it is, it serves to focus your attention on what matters. The peripheral, unimportant things that may have begun to clutter your life and take your attention all of a sudden get pushed out of the way. If a member of your family is diagnosed with a serious illness, all of a sudden the other trivial things that seem to fill so much of your life, they get pushed out. Everything now is concentrated here. And I think for the church troubles, trials, difficulties, as much as we don't like them, are used that way of God. And maybe that's why we have these two churches. They may not stand out in the world's view as “great churches” but are exactly that because it's the evaluation of the Lord of the church. We sometimes look at struggles, tribulations, persecutions, sufferings, they are bad for the church, they keep us from getting our job done but it may be just the opposite. They help to refine us, to sift us, to focus our attention more sharply and more clearly on what we are to be according to the plan and purpose of God for us.

So, we come to the church at Philadelphia. We have moved about thirty miles south and east of Sardis. Remember we are doing that postal loop that started at Ephesus and goes up and around. But we are coming down that irregular circle, we'll come to Laodicea and then to complete it, we go back up to Ephesus. So, we are completing the delivery of these letters He writes to the church, angel or messenger of the church in Philadelphia.

We are familiar with the name Philadelphia because one of our larger cities on the east coast is named Philadelphia. The name was given to this city after the king, Adalis was his name (not that it matters), but he had such a warm encouraging relationship with his brother, his physical brother, that they began to call him by this name, ended up the city gets the name Philadelphia, brotherly love. The word for love and the word for brother. That's where the name comes from.

It was a significant city in its own way. Every city has its own level of importance. One may be more important than others because of significant reasons but every city stands out for some reason. And Philadelphia was established to be a missionary city. Not missionary as we would talk about carrying the Gospel, but it was to be a place to disseminate and carry Greek culture into the rest of the world.

Remember that Ephesus is across the water from Greece in Europe, so we are in Asia now, Asia Minor, the region of Turkey, where these churches are. And if you crossed over you would be in Greece, Corinth in the southern part, a city like Philippi in the northern part. So, Philadelphia was to be a portal, if you will, to bring Greek culture into this part of the world. So, it had its own, it was like the gateway to the East, as some refer to it. The disadvantage of this city, it was subject to earthquakes, and in 17 A.D., remember John is writing about 95 A.D. So, we are 76 years or so, 77 years later, but this city had been destroyed by an earthquake. And still the impact of that, and you get tremors of minor earthquakes and so on that go on.

So, that affected some of the thinking in the city, but a great church. And Christ has a rather lengthy introduction of Himself, longer than some of the other introductions, if you compare them all. But like the church at Smyrna He says, “the first and the last who was dead and has come alive says this.” To Sardis, “The one who has the seven spirits and the seven stars says this.” But with the church at Philadelphia, “he who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one will open says this.” So, it's a fuller introduction to who Christ is and it really identifies Him as the sovereign Messiah who will establish the kingdom. And important as we will see again, the focus in the letters to these churches consistently carries us to that end time, the kingdom. And we need to keep that in mind. And the promises given to help keep these churches on track will connect to the coming kingdom. And important for the church.

One of the disasters that comes in the church is you hear people say, too much emphasis on eschatology, too much talk about prophecy. It distracts us from being focused on today and our responsibilities today. But when Christ addresses this church He does just the opposite. Your focus on the prophetic fulfillment and ultimate end of all things is what keeps you about My business in a proper way. When the church loses its focus on its ultimate goal, it gets absorbed in the things of the present and it gets weakened. Then things like suffering, difficulty, trials, they begin to seem overwhelming, defeating, discouraging. I mean, what about a church that has little power. And that's an accurate evaluation because it is given by the Lord of the church. He says that you have little power. They have His power, but from the perspective that would be looked at by the world and even by other churches, perhaps, give little power. You put it in perspective of being pleasing to me and how that all turns out, things are put in the right perspective.

Christ identifies Himself here as “He who is holy and true.” Holy and true. We are familiar with the word holy. God had told Israel in the Old Testament, “you shall be holy for I am holy.” Peter repeated that to the people of his day, “you shall be holy for I am holy, says the Lord.” So it is a characteristic of God, holiness, and a reminder it is to be characteristic of His people. The word means to be set apart. So you could have items in a physical setting, like the temple or tabernacle in the Old Testament. The items there associated with worship, like the censors. Remember in the rebellion of Korah who intruded into the office of priest with his followers. After they were consumed by fire, God instructed the true priests to go through and gather the censors up that they had been carrying because they were holy, because they were items devoted to the worship of God, set apart from common use to the service of God.

So, God is Himself holy because He is set apart from all sin, all defilement. But the amazing thing is He calls us saints and says we are to be holy. And the word saints is from the same Greek word. It means to be holy, to be separated. So you could translate, if you wanted, when Paul writes to the Corinthians he is writing a letter to the holy ones in the church at Corinth. We say, I'm not holy. Well then you are not saved because we partake of His character and it is by His cleansing grace that we can be called His holy ones.

So, Christ presents Himself here as the One who is ultimately in the fullness of holy because He is God. We'll say more about that in a moment, we won't take time to go back to the Old Testament where God is called holy. Most of you are familiar with that.

He is also called true. He is the One who is holy and true. Foundational in this word is the idea of genuine. He is the genuine One, so true in the sense of genuine. There will be other false prophets, false messiahs that come and go, but here is the one true, living God/Man who is the Messiah of Israel.

Turn over to Revelation 6:10 where martyrs from the coming seven-year tribulation call out to God. Verse 10, “And they cried out with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true.” There you see the very titles given to Christ that He takes for Himself in chapter 3 are given here of the Father. “Will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth.” It will become a key expression that we will come back to, those who dwell on the earth. But holy and true, it's a characteristic of God, characteristic of the Messiah. We’re dealing with the One who is the true and living God. He is the Messiah, He is the God/Man.

Back up to 1 John 5:20, “And we know that the Son of God has come.” We've seen that title earlier, that is a messianic title as well as Son of Man. He is Son of God. “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true.” The One who is the genuine God, the one and only God. “We are in Him who is true,” our relationship to Him, “in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” We belong to Him. So this One who is true, and of course truth emanates from Him, part of His being, His very character is that He is true and everything about Him is true. And His Word is truth.

He comes to this church at Philadelphia, as you come back to Revelation 3, you appreciate who He is. Remember in the Old Testament in Isaiah 6, “the seraphim in the throne room of heaven cry out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord.” And then in John 12, John tells us that that was “the pre-incarnate Christ that was enthroned in glory and the heavenly beings cry out, holy, holy, holy.” He is the One who is born into the human race, the God/Man, the Messiah of Israel who would be the Savior of the world.

Revelation 3:7, “He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David.” And that connects to “who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens says this.” So, having the key is having the authority and the power. You are in the position to determine who comes in and who is excluded. The picture, you have the key, you can unlock the door so some can come in, you can lock the door so some are excluded, a picture of His authoritative power. Important here we see this in its context.

Come back to Isaiah. We don't go back to all the references and allusions to the Old Testament because there are many of them, but the background for this, having the key of David and opening and closing, comes from Isaiah 22. In Isaiah 22, Isaiah is giving prophecies regarding coming judgment. Always in the message of the prophets there is message of judgment. Their presence is an indication of God's coming judgment.

But there are also prophecies of hope. So here he comes and we'll pick up with Isaiah 22:15, “Thus says the Lord God of hosts, come, go to this steward, to Shebna who is in charge of the royal household.” So here is the person who has authority in the royal household. It's a position of authority; he is in charge. As we will see, he will determine who can come into the presence of the king and who can't, who is excluded and who could be included.

We see this going on in our own country, like the President, and they will say, this person will be in this position, he'll determine who gets access to the President. So it is a very important position. That's sort of like, there this is a person who has authority, power. We'll have to come down for time, judgment is going to come on Shebna for his unfaithfulness. Verse 19, “I will depose you from your office, I will pull you down from your station. Then it will come about in that day that I will summon My servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your tunic, tie your sash securely about him and trust him with your authority. He will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the house of Judah.” So he will become the one with power and authority and he can dispense that.

Now you'll note what that involves. Verse 22, “I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder. What he opens no one will shut, what he shuts no one will open. I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, he will become a throne of glory in his father's house.” And you see the honor, the glory that comes with his authority. Now this is taken and Christ applies it to Himself as the One who has the key of David—authority in the house of David and the One in whom all the promises of the covenant made with David will have their ultimate realization and authority, exercise of power.

Come back to Revelation. When he says He will open and He will shut, “He who opens and no one will shut, He shuts and no one will open,” shows the power that He has. He is the descendant of David. Come over to Revelation 5:5, here we would be in the throne room of heaven and we have the living creatures and so on there and the elders. Verse 5, “One of the elders said to me, stop weeping. Behold the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seals.” So we see His connection to David, He has the key of David. Here is finally the One. Eliakim had authority transferred to him, but he wasn't the ultimate realization of it in the book of Isaiah. Now we come to the One who is holy and true, the One who can ultimately be the fulfillment of what was promised to David and He is in that line. When he says “He'll open and no one will shut,” the end of verse 7, “who shuts and no one will open says this,” we're talking here ultimately about access to the kingdom. Here is the holy and true Messiah, He is the One who will sovereignly determine who comes into His kingdom, who will be closed out of His kingdom. We'll see the clear manifestation of this when we get to Revelation 21 and we see the new Jerusalem. We'll see that at the end of this letter as well. There we will be told that certain people will be closed out of that access, other people will have access.

So that picture. Remember in Matthew 25, an earlier period than Revelation 21, we would be back at Revelation 20, when Christ returns at the Second Coming to establish His kingdom, what does He do? He sets up His throne. Then He divides the people, the sheep and the goats and the one group is, “depart from Me you cursed ones into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. I never knew you.”

The other group, “come, enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” He is the One who determines access, He has the key. He closes the door to some, they will not be going into the kingdom. You say, that's a long way off. But that's the point. For each of these letters we are to live in light of the imminent coming of Christ, the imminent…. that means the “anytime coming.”

Now with the revelation we have complete, we now have come from the church at the Rapture and then He'll come at the Second Coming to establish His kingdom. But the point is we live in light of the ultimate event and even for us as the church the ultimate event is not even the Rapture. The ultimate event will be when the bride of Christ comes with Him to establish His kingdom in Revelation 19. And we rule and reign with Him.

So the point of this is, you live with this in mind. This church can be encouraged, the One addressing them is the One who has ultimate authority. Remember what Christ told Nicodemus during His earthly ministry in John 3? “Unless you are born again you will never see the kingdom.” This Jewish teacher knew what He was saying, unless you are born again, you won't be going into the kingdom. You will be closed out, the door will be closed to you.

Other pictures, remember Matthew 25, the parable of the ten virgins. And when the bridegroom comes, five were prepared for His coming, five were not. What happened? The five who were prepared go into the kingdom, the five who were not prepared, the door is closed to them. They have no access to the kingdom. Those pictures. You live in light of the fact He is coming again. We sing the song, coming again, coming again. He is. We live in light of that. Now we break it down but the truth is there. We are serving the One who is King of kings and Lord of lords, who will rule and reign. That's eternity. When we get to Revelation 21-22, we will be in eternity, in the eternal kingdom, in the New Jerusalem and so on.

So, he says in verse 8 with that introduction of Himself as the One with absolute authority, the One who will determine your eternal destiny. “I know your works.” I know your works, similar to what he said to the other churches. “Behold,” and this is an attention word and three times in two verses he uses it. We get used to seeing it in our Bibles and read over it and it's just like a word there that transitions us. But it is a word like you would use when you want someone's full, complete attention. Pay attention, listen closely. He uses it three times. It's in verse 8, we just read it, it begins verse 9. You probably don't have the third one in your English Bible, but you note in the middle of verse 9 you have that hyphen after the word lie, if you are using the New American Standard Bible, between lie and I there is a hyphen. Well, in the Greek text the word behold is repeated. They have left it out, maybe helps to make the English flow a little better than repeating something. Three times he tells them, pay close attention, listen to what I am saying. “Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut because you have little power.” So, he wants to tell them something before he proceeds. The real connection here, you could put a parenthesis around behold and after power. He says behold I have put before you an open door which no one can shut because you have little power. In other words, as you look at this church it looks like a church that is struggling to make it. And these people are faithful and they are committed to the Word of God but the opposition is great enough it looks like they may not make it. But what does he say at the end of verse 7? He has authority over who will come in to the kingdom and who will not. And he reminds them, “Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut.” And some take this that it means they will have evangelistic opportunities and there are other verses that use the picture of an open door for opportunity for evangelism. But that's not what he is talking about here, he is assuring them before he proceeds that no matter what happens, I have put an open door before you. You are going into the kingdom, ultimately. When we get to Revelation 21, these believers in the church at Philadelphia are going to be there. Nobody is going to shut the door on them. They may go down in the persecution, they may struggle and seem to lose the battle, but in the ultimate end they are the victors. They are, as every letter closes, overcomers.

So, he gives them this word of encouragement, following up. He says I know your works and before he proceeds to talk about their little power and the situation with that, I want you to know no one is closing the door on you. Remember, I open the door, I close the door, I determine who comes in and out. Listen to Me carefully, no one can close the door on you, you are going to go into the kingdom with Me. That's the promise given here to this church. “I have put before you an open door which no one can shut because you have little power.” That's back to that verse I mentioned from Zechariah 4, it's not by might nor by power, says the Lord, but by My Spirit. In that sense that's why we will all make it as believers in Jesus Christ. Not because some of us are stronger, some of our churches are stronger, humanly speaking, have greater numbers. It will be the grace of God. Doesn't matter you have little power, that's not what determines you going into the kingdom. My power determines you go into the kingdom.

These kinds of things are great encouragement when you are under the pressure. That's why you could have people through church history who gave their lives as martyrs. This isn't the end, I don't lose. You burn me in the fire, what did Jesus say? Don't fear those who can kill the body but are not able to harm the soul. You better fear Him after He has destroyed the body is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. So, it's an encouragement, this church, when all is said and done, you win. You are an overcomer, you have the victory, no one can shut the door that I have opened for you as My children.

So, you could say I know your deeds, your works and then you could jump down to you have little power. I put the parenthesis after no one can shut. I know your works, maybe translate that word because to that, that you have little power, that you kept My word, you have not denied My name. It is their faithfulness. They look weak but they are strong. Just like, I was reading in the martyrs in the last few weeks and some of the testimony down through times of the reformation, the Anabaptists and those who died. I mean, you have young people in their 20s going to the stake, dying terrible deaths. You almost don't like to read what they did to these people. But, I'm ready to die. You say, you are young, you have life before you, you have a wife and kids, some of them dead. But they kept their eyes where they are going. So, they were strong.

So, this church has a little power but they've kept His word. They have no denied My name. These are things that matter—faithfulness to Him, being faithful. The pressures, the trials, we talk about this, we ought to know that they are part of God's plan. Why would God let these churches go through this? He could have preserved and protected them. You know that's how we think, that if I am faithful and I do my best, the Lord will keep some of the troubles from me. Sometimes we do say we see someone so faithful, so godly, we say, why would the Lord bring that to their life? Why did He cut their life short? We don't know. We do know, though, He is sovereign, in that sense there are no accidents, no tragedies in that sense. God is sovereign. You have been faithful, you have kept My word, you have not denied My name. Always want to be careful, the trials that come, the difficulties that come, they are sifting, they are refining, they reveal things in these other churches. Sometimes the they revealed things that shouldn't have been there. But here it has just been purifying, they have been faithful. Well maybe if there is nothing you condemn here; they should have been a church with less problems. That's not the case, the opposition is strong here.

Incidentally, it is strong in the same way it was at the church at Smyrna, the other church that doesn't have any condemnation. Look at verse 9, “Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them come, bow down at your feet, make them know I have loved you.” Synagogue of Satan, we say you shouldn't say negative things about someone else's religion or worship. This is the head of the church saying, here is a synagogue of the Jews in this city, it is not a synagogue of God's. It's a synagogue of the devil.

“They say they are Jews but they lie.” They are not really Jews. That's the same thing he said back in Revelation 2:9, “I know your tribulation, your poverty, but you are rich. The blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.” You remember God chose the nation Israel as a nation. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the twelve sons of Jacob, those descendants, as the nation that would belong to Him. But just being physically born into that nation doesn't mean you would inherit all the promises that God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the foundational Abrahamic Covenant. You had to have the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be an inheritor of the promise. So that's why he says they are not Jews, because they are unbelievers. They are physical Jews but they don't belong to the living God. This is not saying that you can call Gentiles Jews or Jews are not physical Jews. They are. But they are not Jews in the sense of being inheritors of the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You had to have the faith of Abraham, that's Romans 4. Paul uses the argument also in writing to the Galatians. You have to have the faith of Abraham.
Now when we Gentiles believe in the promises of God, the finished work of the Jewish Messiah, Christ, on the cross, we experience His salvation. We don't become Jews; we are still Gentiles. So, there is no crossing of the line. But when he says here they claim to be Jews, they are not, doesn't mean they are not physically Jews. They are, they are in a synagogue. But they are not in line with the promises God gave to believing Israel.

They are the synagogue of Satan, this is all unbelievers, they belong to the devil, they always do the work of the devil, they serve him, they do his will. That's what has happened in some of the churches like the church at Thyatira. It had been infiltrated by a prophetess who was really a servant of the devil. It happened in the church at Pergamum, that had been infiltrated by the servants of the devil who were Nicolaitans. It happened to the church at Corinth when Paul said that Satan had disguised some of his servants as angels of light, claiming to be apostles when they weren't. That is what is going on.

So here you have the enemies of God. They are not in the church, the enemies of God, the servants of the devil, they are a synagogue of Satan. These are not Jewish cities here in Asia Minor, they are Gentile cities. But Jews had traveled for one reason or another to other places and here you have a strong contingent of Jews like you did at Smyrna. And they have a synagogue and this synagogue becomes a center of opposition to bring persecution to believers. Because they belong to the devil. Well, every unbeliever belongs to the devil so they have something in common with Gentile unbelievers. Everybody hates true believers. Jesus said, if they hated Me, they will hate you. So these Jews become leaders in this opposition and persecution of Christians at Philadelphia, even as they did at Smyrna.

But there will come a day of reckoning. Again, we get shortsighted, we think the Lord ought to do something now. We like to be vindicated. I'd like the Lord to reveal that we are right and they are wrong, and we are the righteous ones and we serve God and I get tired of waiting. And so, we get frustrated and we get worn down. There will come a time when “I will make them come and bow down at your feet, make them know that I have loved you. Isn't that encouraging to hear? He reminds them, I love you. Now they don't know I love you, but right now with all you are going through, I love you. And some day they are going to know that I loved you and they are going to bow down before you. When will this be? Well, it could be a couple of different times. Ultimately, I take it, it will come down when you go into the kingdom and there is separation out, and there the church is unveiled. And who is going to rule in the kingdom? The twelve apostles. Jesus said that when He establishes His kingdom on the earth, you will set on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And the church is built on the foundation in Ephesians of the apostles and prophets. There will come a day when they will recognize, there will come a day when every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And he is Lord and we are the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. So there will come a day when we will be recognized. May be in the day when all Israel is saved in Romans 11, and even Israel will be brought to salvation and they will recognize. But even the unbelieving Jews, the opponents of believers will someday realize these are the children of God, they belong to Him. He is true and they are true, they are genuine.

Verse 10 is a promise, an important verse, very important verse. We'll be talking about the tribulation and Rapture before we get into the prophetic portion of the book of Revelation, but this verse, key verse. “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance.” They have persevered, He has persevered. I mean, He has been the One who has been faithful, He endured. And they have followed that pattern, that example. Perseverance, John back in Revelation 1:9 identified himself, “I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance,” and the sufferings, the trials, the tribulation which will lead to the kingdom, because remember when Paul did his evangelization he told them in Acts 14 through many tribulations you must enter the kingdom. And perseverance. So, that's what it will take, the perseverance that goes through trial and tribulation. So, you have kept the word of My perseverance, because He told them, “you have little power,” at the end of Revelation 3:8, “but they kept His word and didn't deny His name” and under the opposition of the synagogue of Satan you have kept the word of My perseverance. Remember if they have hated Me, they will hate you, Christ said. He persevered.

We are encouraged in the letter to the Hebrews to follow the example of Christ who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. And we are to endure. He told them earlier at the end of Hebrews 10, you have need of endurance so after we have persevered you receive what has been promised. This is not the time of fulfillment for us as God's people, but ultimately there is a kingdom coming and we will rule and reign with Him, He promised to the churches through the message to the church at Thyatira at the end of Revelation 2, that we will have authority over the nations. We settle down and think the ideal is centered on the here and now. Right now, God has blessed us in a country where we are free from any kind of real physical suffering and persecution, but the opposition of the devil is just as real. His goal is to discourage us, to weaken us, to wear us out. We can't let that happen.

He has promised, you keep the word of My perseverance, He promises, though, in the ultimate here, important promise. “I will keep you,” verse 10, “from the hour of testing, that hour which is to come upon the whole world.” You have it in your margin, a compound word that means the whole inhabited earth, “to test those who dwell on the earth.” I take it with the promise here, remember this is not just given to the church at Philadelphia, it is a letter addressed to the church at Philadelphia, but through the church at Philadelphia it is addressed to all the churches. That's why the end of every letter says, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And we've looked in Revelation 22 where he reminds us this is a message to the churches. So, every individual, local church is to take these letters to heart.

There is a promise to be kept from the hour of testing, that time of testing that will come upon the whole inhabited earth. He's not talking about something here just locally for Philadelphia, this is bigger. It will come upon the whole inhabited world and it will come to test those who dwell on the earth. This expression, those who dwell on the earth, will be used ten more times in the book of Revelation. It always refers to the unbelievers on the earth. They are those tied to this earth, belong here, so to speak. This is a time of judgment on them. And it will come upon the whole inhabited earth.

Come over to Revelation 6, we don't have time to look through a lot of verses, but we'll pick up these as we move into the book. Revelation 6, we are into the seven-year tribulation, that time of testing and trial that the churches are promised they will escape from, be kept out of. And here you have people martyred because during this time, as we will see, people will get saved, but they will suffer. Many will be martyred for their faith in Christ. So these who are martyred in this seven-year tribulation call out to God for justice. So, verse 10, “they cried out with a loud voice, saying how long oh Lord, holy and true,” there is that expression we said holy and true used of God, “will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood,” now note this, “on those who dwell on the earth.” And just an example, we'll see this as we move through the book of Revelation, those who dwell on the earth are the unbelievers who are fighting against God and the people of God and doing all they can to annihilate them.

Back in Revelation 3:10, “I will keep you from,” or out of. If you read, this is a key verse, the promise to the church is to not go through the hour of testing, that time of testing that will begin in Revelation 6 and will go to Revelation 19, the 70th week of Daniel. It is clear, there is a lot of discussion and trying to massage this verse and make adjustments so they can say the church will be kept through this time. There is a good preposition that you could use with through, it uses the preposition, eck, out of or from, keep you from or out of the hour of testing. I think this is a promise. You say that's in the future, the church at Philadelphia, this is written 2000 years ago. How is that a comfort? Well, it's a reminder of their ultimate victory. No one can close the door, they are going to go into the kingdom and the judgment that comes upon an unbelieving world in its fullest sense, the churches don't have to be concerned. They are promised deliverance.

So we may go through trials and tribulations, we do, but we won't go through THE tribulation, that period of time that is so awful Christ said if He didn't cut it short after seven years, there would not be a person left alive on the face of the earth. We talk about catastrophes, the world has never seen, we're going to be talking about people, we'll see as we go through Revelation, dying by the billions. Not the millions, the billions. You do get the sense that the world can't survive. You have people coming up in their night visions or nightmares, all these ideas. We know how it is all going to end, we know where it's all going. And there is coming a time when the world is going to be overwhelmed and you can't stock enough food or find enough hiding places, but He is going to pour out His wrath on the world. But the churches don't have to be worried about that.

So, a promise, the worst of time that is yet future, you're not going through that. The church at Smyrna, they were told there are worse times coming for you, but none of the churches have to worry about going through the tribulation. So, I'm not worried, the worst is yet to come for this world but we're not going through it. What about the tribulations we go through now? Persevere, endure. There are going to be attacks from outside, there are going to be attacks from inside. That's all right, they are opportunities for us to prove our faithfulness.

He goes on, verse 11, we have to wrap this up. “I am coming quickly.” Again, those promises that are repeated, we won't take the time to go back to Revelation 22 where He says repeatedly, I am coming quickly, I am coming quickly, I am coming quickly. It's His imminency. The danger for the church is we settle down, we become focused here and we lose our way. Then we begin to look at things that are too much trouble. And here a family not too long ago said they were leaving. Why? There are just troubles and over the year’s troubles and conflicts. I can't promise you anything else. We get comfortable, we look for churches where we could just enjoy ourselves. Are there any churches the devil will let go. Can we go someplace where the devil will leave us alone? Yes, it's called heaven, but we aren't there yet. This kind of thinking. We sing the old gospel song, we're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, the city of God. There is a truth there. That's where we are going ultimately, the New Jerusalem. I mean, that ought to keep my focus. The Rapture will come first, we'll fill that in, but the ultimate end is to be in the kingdom, dwelling in a city which itself is the temple.

“Hold fast what you have so that no one will take your crown.” Crown here, rewards. 1 Corinthians 3 talked about this, when we stand before the Bema seat of Christ and our works are put there and some are burnt up, we lose rewards. These times of struggle and trial give us opportunity to persevere for the Lord that we serve. So hold fast, keep your attention on what the ultimate goal is—a crown and ruling with Him in the kingdom when He gives us authority. What can men do to us? What can the devil do to us? He can make my life miserable. He can't take away our victory. We can't lose. We're promised we won't be closed out. Bad as it comes, He loves us and someday even our strongest opponents will know He loved them. We thought their suffering was an indication God didn't love them, but now we realize He did love them. Through all that time.

“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God. He will not go out from it anymore. I will write on him the name of My God, the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” You see where he has carried us—we are in Revelation 21, 22. We'll be a pillar, and we use that symbolism, we say he is a pillar in the church, he is one who stands rock solid and firm through everything. We'll be a pillar in the temple, we won't be able to be moved. Do you know what the temple is? The new Jerusalem is the temple because the throne of God now dwells on the new earth in the new Jerusalem. That's where we will dwell. So we won't go out, that's our permanent residence. We have the name of God, the name of the new Jerusalem and Christ's new name inscribed on us. This is where we belong, that's our identification, His name is written all over us. The city, the name of His Father that says I belong here, I have a permanent residence. You see how He has carried us to where we go because that's what matters. The overcomer wins, he doesn't get closed out of the kingdom. He's a permanent resident in the new Jerusalem.

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” And we read that and go out and the next thing you know we are caught up and distracted. Wait a minute, you remember whatever pressure comes, whatever trial comes, whatever opposition comes, no matter. He loves us, the door can never be closed to us. We will overcome, not by our own strength, not by our own power, but by His grace and power. That's the salvation He has provided in Christ. We are to live it out in light of where we are going. This world is not my home; I'm just passing through. Our citizenship is not on this earth; it is in heaven. How easily we become so attached and so tied and measure how things are going to affect us here and the things that overwhelm us here. That's why the churches, do we have ears to hear, listen. Listen up, pay attention, persevere, keep on, be faithful. Overcomers are victors. We will someday be in a kingdom and all will recognize we have been the objects of His love, we belong to Him. Nothing can change that.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the power of your word, the message to the churches. How awesome it is, we read this and your Spirit directed this to be written for our benefit, this local church at this period of time in history, to benefit from it just as the church at Philadelphia benefited so many years ago. How privileged we are to have these messages given to these individual churches, to sort through them, to read, to learn, to evaluate ourselves carefully, to behold, to pay close attention, to have ears that hear that we might be faithful. Thank you for the glory promised to us, unworthy, undeserving, but provided by your grace in the person and work of your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.