Revelation 3 // Doctrine or the Bible

okay Revelation chapter 3 let's get into I'm gonna I'm gonna try to wrap up the chapter I'm going to try to yeah we'll see because I want to get into the good stuff I mean this is good stuff but messages to the churches so seven letters to seven churches seven is a number of completeness yeah and so it's a it's a picture of God that's Jesus's complete message to the church secondly Jesus is talking to the church and so these chapters are really cool because Jesus lets you know what is going on in church and he lets you know what he appreciates and he lets you know what he doesn't appreciate and so you can Jesus see Jesus as hard as far as how church is supposed to go and what a godly church looks like here's another thing as far as history goes this is right around 90 between 90 and 95 ad that this was written and so this is the state of the church in southern Turkey around 95 ad and the reason I'm making that point is because as we go through and we look at the letters to the churches there are some letters where Jesus has you know basically it goes through a whole list there's a title of Jesus there's a commendation to the church there's a condemnation there's an exhortation there's a promise to over comers and so on and so in two of the letters to the churches there is no condemnation and so one of those churches is a church at Smyrna that was a church under persecution the other one is the church at Philadelphia we're going to talk about that tonight Jesus has nothing bad to say about those churches and so there's no condemnation there but there's two churches that Jesus has nothing good to say about and that's Thyatira it's gonna be the last Church and it's Sardis it's gonna be the first church that we talked about tonight and those churches he had nothing good to say about this is at the end of the first century and Jesus already has major problems with what's going in church going on in church the reason I'm telling you that is because some of you guys are Bible scholars and your church history scholars you're interested in that kind of stuff and one of the things that you always have to be a a careful of is quoting guys in the second and the third in the fourth century quoting the church fathers now I'll quote the church fathers on certain issues but I don't necessarily quote the church fathers on doctrinal issues because I know that at the end of at the end of the Bible the church is already getting messed up by by teachers that are that are squirreling things around and so even later than that this is the end of the first century in the second and a third century you got guys who are just going wrong go on stuff and so you got to be careful about who you're quoting from so when somebody tells me I like Irenaeus for example he's a great guy but I don't believe everything that Irenaeus says any more than I believe everything that you know Joe the pastor of the podunk church down the down the street says you know there it's the same kind of thing and so you just have to watch out for that stuff and so that's a that's a good thing you know it looks like also that as we go through these churches that it looked it looks like it corresponds really well with Western church history and so that's a really interesting thing and something that I haven't told you as we've been going through this these seven churches correspond to other passages of Scripture so when you're looking at Matthew chapter 13 and the kingdom parables you know how many there are guess yeah there's seven you know what they correspond to each one of these churches it's actually pretty cool and when you look at the letters of Paul to the churches to all the churches that are mentioned in the New Testament you got to understand that there there are double letters so Corinth is written to twice and Thessalonica is written to twice but when you go down and you count the count the churches that are mentioned that New Testament letters are written to guess how many there are seven and guess what those letters correspond to the seven letters to the seven churches too so really interest is interesting stuff you guys can chase that down on your own I might talk about it later but I don't know I don't know if I will maybe I'll leave that for you let's pray and let's get into it father we just bless you Lord we thank you for the time of worship that we had thank you for songs that are written to express our praise and our love to you and Lord we just want the worship to continue as we get into your word we pray that you'd open it up for us that you'd show us truths that we may have never seen before that you'd exhort us in ways that just draw us closer to you and Lord that the the whole study could be a blessing to your people and not only to us Lord but to you also we just want to honor you and all that we do thank you Lord for your word pray that you bless it now in Jesus name Amen okay letter to Sardis and to the angel of the church in Sardis write these things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars I know your works there you have a name that you're alive but you're dead be watchful and strapped like Jesus to say that to you I know your works you have a name that you're alive but you're dead you know be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found your works perfect before God remember therefore how you've received and heard hold fast and repent therefore if you will not watch I will come upon you as a thief and you will not know what hour I will come upon you you have a few names even in sardis who have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the book of life but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches and so again what Jesus does is he starts off with the title and the title that he has oh I need to address angel again angel is the Greek word for messenger okay and so when it's translated angel it's not actually translated it's transliterated and so that word angel in Greek is Angelus Angie Els is how we would bring it across in English if you were and and so I I don't know I should have thought this through [Music] somebody who's better at linguistics and me who knows Spanish what's a Spanish word that doesn't get translated and comes straight into English I'm looking at you what what taco I don't even know if taco is Spanish is taco Spanish is that an American thing you know I don't know anyway let's use taco you know as as white dummies who don't know anything about Spanish and so you know if you were gonna translate taco you would give it some some type of translation where a person never knew what a taco was would understand the description but what taco is is a name and so the name just bring it's brought straight across and so it's the same thing with with angel it's the word for messenger and so we're either talking about angels for each one of the churches the problem with that is when Jesus addresses the churches that he has nothing good to say about if you're dressing angels the Angels if you're talking about the good angels the good angels don't do anything good on every level and so it's not likely that he's actually talking to angels there he's talking to the messenger of the church and so what he's doing is talking to the pastor that also is an indication of where the church was at the end of the first century each one of these churches had a pastor and that comes into arguments about church government and how churches were run and in that kind of thing for all you Bible scholars in any case to the Angel of the church in sardis what that means is that Jesus holds me accountable for what goes on in the church yet in Kennewick here at Calvary Chapel he olds me accountable and so if Jesus was gonna write a church to or a letter to this church he wouldn't be writing it to you guys who would be writing it to me and he would be talking about all the things that he could command about our church and then he would be writing to me - about all the things that he would condemn and basically I'm the guy who gets called on those things that's what Jesus is doing with these guys so the the pastor at Sardis is the one who's being called out in this letter he says these things right says he who has the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars you remember earlier the seven stars were the seven churches so he's saying I've got the church in my hand but I've also got the seven spirits of God it's the idea that I have the Holy Spirit and we already read this and we know that this church has a name that it's alive but it's dead and anytime that you're dead spiritually what you need is a healthy dose of the Holy Spirit and so that's what Jesus starts this off with he goes I know your works that you have a name that you're alive but you're dead and so this church had had a rep in the area that it was a good church that it was a growing church that it was living church but Jesus looks beyond what the rep is and he says you're dead you're not alive I don't care what people are saying about you you're dead because Jesus doesn't look on the outward appearance he looks at the heart right and so that's what he's doing with this church when you're talking about church history basically as we've gone through Ephesus is the Apostolic Church Smyrna Smyrna is the church under persecution Pergamus is kind of an in-between place where the church begins to have some power in Rome and there's there's compromise there when you get to the to the church and Thyatira there's all kinds of corruption in that church including a woman who's a harlot who's teaching people to go off into idolatry and so we talked about last time that that may correspond to the Catholic Church so if that corresponds to the Roman Catholic Church or Catholicism then the message to Sardis would be a message to Protestantism because the Protestant Church came after the Catholic Church and Jesus didn't say that they that the Catholic Church was dead he recognized that there were some people in that church that were still doing well and he had some commendations for them there is no commendation for this church except that they need to be watchful and strengthen the things that remain don't let everything else die and so the Protestant Reformation was something that was huge in church history I don't know if you if you know this but the Protestant Reformation Meishan started as a well it was a protest station against some of the teachings of the Catholic Church specifically - one of the teachings had to do with what were called indulgences there was a church that was being built in Rome it's called st. Peter's that was being built in Rome at the time and they were going around doing fundraising and one of the fundraisers was we will give you a ticket basically that allows you to commit whatever sin you want to and you'll still go to heaven and that was called an indulgence give it a fancy name but basically it was a license to sin that's what it was and so obviously you have people in the in the Catholic Church at that time who were godly people godly pastors got godly you had nuns and monks and that kind of stuff at that time you had godly people in the in the Catholic Church who had a real problem with that and one of them was Martin Luther and he was a priest then the other one had had to do with it was indulgences and what was the other one oh it was no no no purgatory yes thank you it was purgatory and what they were teaching was that when you died that you didn't go straight to heaven or straight to hell what happened was you went to an in-between place called purgatory where you were purged for your sin and so basically it was kind of a hot place where your sin got cooked out of you and once you got purified you weren't bad enough to go to hell until you went you went to this place and once you got purified you could make it into heaven but there was a shortcut you could you could skip all of that and you could proceed directly to go and collect $200 and so the shortcut would be that you would say masses in the Roman Catholic Church when they're teaching on a Sunday they do what's calling saying the mass and so they would say a mass for your family member and that would knock off negative points in purgatory and would get you out quicker and all you had to do was pay a certain amount and so they were they were paying off priests to get their family members out of purgatory here's the problem of that whole thing but I will never teach his purgatory Bible number teaches that there's an in-between place the Bible teaches that you either have a real live living relationship with Christ or you don't and there's no in-between and so there is no purgatory and so again what was happening was the flock was getting fleeced these guys were doing this and it caused the major rebellion that took place in the Roman Catholic Church that split the church off into the Protestant Church and one of the Protestant Church first started and this is kind of what's cool about a new work of God when when God started with the Protestant church you had people who were excited about the Word of God so Martin Luther for example when he when he started Protestantism he's the one who's credited with that he did what was called well basically he wrote 95 theses 95 complaints against the Catholic Church wrote them out nailed them to the cathedral to the Wittenberg Door Wittenberg Cathedral door and one of the things that happened with Martin Luther was a guy had gotten saved by teaching Bible studies he was actually going through the book of Romans and realized that salvation was not something that could be earned it had to be something that was given by God because we had no capability of earning it and when he glommed onto that whole idea god just changed his life and did a major work in him and he started teaching Bible studies left me he was that guy was teaching Bible studies every night of the week basically in the Bible studies that the early the early Protestants were into were not just you know 25-minute sermons they were they were four and five hours long people would come and they would listen to the Bible for four to five hours they would listen to debates on the Bible for that period of time you know I've got a phrase that I stole from somebody I don't know where to got it where I got it from sermonettes or for christian hats you know and these guys were not into sermonettes and so when the Protestant Reformation started it was it was an awesome thing the problem is that over a period of time what happens with movements and what happens with churches is they start establishing a forum they start basically doing things by rote they basically kind of reach a plateau and then they just do what they do and then when you get to the next generation they're doing what the previous guys did and they're just going through the motions and what can happen is you can lose the life it's really important as Christians that that only happen that not only happens to churches that happens to people too and so remember the day you got saved remember how excited you were remember how much in love with Jesus you were remember how you loved the Bible remember how you loved to pray remember all that do you remember that that's not supposed to stop it's not ever supposed to stop and if it's stopping it's something that needs to be taken care of otherwise you die and that's what happens to movements that's what happens to people and so what Jesus says is you have a name that you're alive and the Protestant church has a name that it's alive but he says your death and that's what happened with most mainline Protestant denominations you know when you're when you're talking about about Presbyterian I want to I don't want to pick on people but in general when you talk about mainline denominations we're talking about things like Methodism and Presbyterianism and Lutheranism and and that kind of thing most of the churches and a lot of the people will tell you this Episcopalian ISM most of the churches are dead in fact a lot of these guys call their congregations the frozen Chosin they've been chosen by God but there's no life in them there are all like icicles basically and that is not what a church is supposed to be like we're supposed to be alive and we're supposed to be zealous we're supposed to be boiling this is what's supposed to be going on so he says you have a name that you're alive but you're dead do you have a name that you're alive everybody look at you and say oh there's a believer there's a follower there's somebody who loves the Lord but on the inside you know that there's a problem you know that you're dead on the inside that is something that needs to be taken care of and this is a letter where Jesus speaks to that whole issue he says be watchful so there's no commendation here there's just a condemnation the name that you're alive but you're dead and he talks about what needs to happen and this is the exhortation he says be watchful strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for have not found your works perfect before God and so he says remember therefore how you have received and heard and that's the the first thing that needs to happen when you're looking at repentance from dead works repentance from a dead life you have to remember that's why I said do you remember when you when you first gave your life to Jesus you have to remember what it's like there's no reason to just go okay well this is the new normal because it's not the new norm dead is not normal for a Christian right and so you need to remember how you received you need to remember how you heard and then you secondly need to hold fast and then thirdly there needs to be repentance and it's a repentance it's always a change of mind and obviously there's a change of action that goes along with it but when I'm repenting what I'm doing is on the one hand I'm going in one direction if I repent it's like doing a 180 I'm not going to go that direction any more I am going to decide that I'm going to stop going that direction I'm gonna go the opposite way that's what repentance means and obviously it's something that starts in the head and then it's shown through your actions he then says therefore if you will not watch I will come upon you as a thief and you'll not know what hour I will come upon you and that interesting Jesus talks about earlier on in the Bible that we need to be watching and we need to be ready for his coming for us and he said I'm coming like a thief in the night he said you know there this is out of Matthew chapter 24 at the end of the chapter and so he said he's coming like a thief in the night and he says if the watchman if the owner of the house had known what hour the thief had come he would not have allowed him to come in and steal the stuff away and so the same thing you need to be watching you need to be ready for me because I'm coming in an hour that you don't know and so each one of us has a responsibility to be ready for the coming of the Lord and what Jesus was talking about was the rapture of the church this is the reality about the rapture of the church jesus said that he could come at any moment it could have been any moment in the last 2,000 years one of the things that we do around here is a prophecy update and I like doing that stuff I'll go through and I'll show you what's happening in the news and I'll show you what's happening in the world and they'll compare it to what the Bible has to say about stuff that's happening in the book of Revelation we'll do more of that as we go through it but none of that stuff had to be in place for Jesus to come the the fact that we're seeing the precursors of those things we're kind of seeing them coming up over the horizon so to speak the fact that that's happening is cool and it's a warning to us and it could be a warning to people who around us but it didn't have to happen Jesus could have just come and taken us out and all of that stuff could have happened no matter what what the issues were on the planet Earth at the time so again Jesus talks about coming at him in a moment of time and that the fact that the whole church all down through the ages needs to be ready for his coming that's called the imminent the doctrine of the imminent return of Christ he's coming at any moment so if Jesus is coming at any moment and I'm not ready what happens and what Jesus said is there are two servants one servant was a good and faithful servant and he was ready for his masters coming so as master came and there was blessing there but that evil servant if he says in his heart missus were in quoting the passage if that evil servant says in his heart my lord delays his coming and begins to eat and drink with the drunkards and beat his fellow servant then I'll come on then at an hour that he does not know Dave that he doesn't know an hour that he doesn't know and I will cut him in two and he you know and basically give him his portion with the unbelievers there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and so Jesus talked about the fact that when he comes that he's coming for his church and there are going to be two in the field one's gonna be taken and the others left two will be grinding at a mill one's gonna be taken and the others left and Jesus again said you need to be ready for this event because it could happen any month at any moment so for example if my wife was not following Christ and we're in the same bed Jesus talked about this in Luke 17 we're in the same bed I disappear nothing left of me I disappear I go home to be with the Lord she goes into the tribulation period and it's gonna be awful and that's that's an event that's going to be taking place on the planet and you need to be ready for it if Jesus came tonight if before I got done with this sentence Jesus came would you be sitting in your seat when all the rest of us were gone or would you be going with the Lord and it's something that we need to keep in mind um he said to unbelievers that he was coming like a thief in the night this is out of first Thessalonians chapter 5 he says concerning the times and the seasons brethren you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly that the day the Lord so comes as a thief in the night for when they say peace and safety sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape but you brethren are not in the darkness so that that day should overtake you as a thief you're all sons of light and sons of the day we're not of the night nor of darkness therefore let us not sleep as others do but let us watch and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night those who are drunk or drunk at night but let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation for God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ and here's the point that I'm making the unbelievers have Jesus come upon them like a thief and night the unbelievers get destruction the unbelievers the ones who are left behind get the wrath of God that's what the unbelievers get and that's what the rest of the book of tribulation is going to be about it's gonna be about that tribulation period and so his warning to this church is pretty intense he says if you do not if you will not watch I will come upon you as a thief and you'll not know what hour I will come upon you and that's a warning that you're gonna go under the Tribulation Period you're not going to be taken in the rapture so you're gonna be left behind you don't want to be left behind he goes on and he says you have a few names even in sardis who have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy and so he lets them know that there are still people there who love the Lord the white garments represent purity in revelation 19:8 it represents the righteous deeds of the saints and so you've still got a few people who have not defiled their garments and again they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy and one of the promises that Jesus made was that when we saw these things beginning to come to pass all the stuff that we talked about it the prophecy updates and all that kind of stuff when we see these things beginning to come to pass look up for our Redemption draws near and Jesus talked about the fact that there was an escape and that we would be standing before the Son of Man and that's again what he's offering these people you want to stand before the Son of Man he says he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and again this is a promise to the overcomers you'll be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the book of life blotting out his name from the book of life book of life is an interesting book it's a book that you read about when you get to Revelation chapter 20 actually it's mentioned a couple of times in the book of Revelation in in chapter 20 it's consulted when unbelievers stand before God the book of life is checked to see if their name is in it and when you go through the history of the book of life life it's pretty interesting in fact let's do that turn with me back to the book of Exodus Exodus chapter 30 10 I'm just going to show you every passage there's not a whole lot of them but every passage that speaks about the book of life so in Exodus chapter 32 verse 32 actually I'm gonna start reading in verse 31 this is when the the people of Israel had sinned with the with the golden calf and so God's passing out consequences and Moses is praying for the people and all kinds of stuff is going on there's a lot of drama in Israel and Moses says comes on the next day or excuse me verse 31 Moses returns to the Lord he says oh these people have committed a great sin and have made for themselves a God of gold yet now if you will forgive their sin and if you look in your translation hopefully hopefully as it has it this in there there's a - there and it's a it's a large one it's a long - it's an indication that there's a pause in the narrative there for a period of time it's an indication that the next thing that Moses says he considers pretty thoroughly before he says it okay and so he says yet now if you will forgive their sin then he pauses and he says but if not I pray blot me out of your book which you have written and so what he's doing is offering up his life for the life of his people now not just his life his eternal life for the life of his people and that's the first time that the book of life is mentioned if you go over to Psalm 69 Psalm 69 point that I'm making here as Moses talked about having his name blotted out of the book of life Psalm 69 in verse 28 it says talking about the unrighteous let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous and so again the whole idea of being blotted out of the book of life nowwhat blotted is about they used to write in the ink and they had no erasers and so if you were writing something in ink and you wanted to erase it there was no erasing it what you did was you took more ink and you blotted it out and so there's there's a blank spot it's like it's like when you have documents that are released from the United States government and they redact whole long passages there what they've done is they've blotted out all those things well the book of life has is spoken about having names blotted out turn over to Luke chapter 10 Luke chapter 10 this is the next mention in verse 20 disciples have come back to Jesus and they're rejoicing over the fact that they can cast out demons and Jesus says verse 20 nevertheless do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven and again that's a reference to the book of life so you the when you give your life to Christ you have your name written in heaven Philippians 4 3 turn over there Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians 4 3 philippians i mean 4 3 it says I urge you also true companion help those these women who labored with me in the gospel with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life and so again you have this book where you got your name written in it and if you look at revelation 13:8 we have this this passage right here in Revelation chapter 3 but look at revelation 13:8 don't worry I have a point as I'm going through and talking about this it says verse 8 all who dwell on the earth will worship Him that's talking about the Antichrist whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world so now you have names not written in so you have names written in you have names not written in and you have the the possibility of names being blotted out in the Bible and then revelation 17:8 look at that the beast that you saw was and is not will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition and those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they see the Beast that was and is not and yet is ok that's seven eight and then finally revelation 20:15 I already referred to it and in that passage it says anyone not found written in the book of life was cast from the lake of fire so the book of life is pretty important having your name written in the book of life is a must because if you don't have your name written in the book of life you're cast in the lake of fire and so that includes those who who've been blotted out so when you go through the Bible and you'll look at God's book of life it talks about people being blotted out of the book of life people being written into the book of life and people never having been written in the book of life I've had some conversations with people who believe that once you give your life to Jesus that that can never change and that you have no options as far as whether or not you can stay will you stay with Jesus or you walk away from him that flies in the face of plain Scripture the whole book of Hebrews is about don't leave the whole book of Hebrews is about don't leave and so you know I'm a pretty simple guy if God has a whole book that tells me don't leave maybe I shouldn't leave maybe that's what I should be happening there it's kind of like you know there are guys who teach that anybody who's going through a trial has done something to make that make the Lord mad anybody who's sick doesn't have enough faith anybody who loses family members is obviously being punished by God there's a whole book about that it's called the book of Job and it militates against that and so you know when you when you look at the book of Job and all the guys who are saying that to job in the book of Job you've sinned you're you gods mad at you something's happening here you can't be a righteous guy and the book of Job says exactly the opposite I kind of think when God writes a whole book about that anybody who comes up and teaches me that every Christian should be healthy and wealthy doesn't know what they're talking about because there's a whole book that says something totally different to that and that's what doctrine is about you take your doctrine you conform it to what the Word of God has to say so when I talk to Calvinists radical Calvinists that tell me that nobody can walk away from Jesus I immediately have some problems with them and we go through and we look at a bunch of verses and most of the Calvinists that I've ever spoken to help them to have themselves so wrapped up in YouTube channels and reading Calvinist books that they don't even read the Bible anymore they don't even know what the verses have to say and when you show them verses they don't like them they have real problems with them and so for example one time I was talking to a Calvinist and I've just gone over this whole thing with the the book of life thing and one of the excuses that even then he made was I said you know he said that well maybe what happens is that everybody gets their name written in the book of life and when they don't receive Christ and what happens is they get their names blotted out I went okay well there's a problem with that because then you got guys whose names were never written and all in the book of life and so I showed him the passage in Revelation 13:8 where it says they they had their they they never had their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life and he goes aha well maybe it's a different book of life maybe the father has a book of life and that's the one that people get blotted out of and maybe Jesus has another book of life and that's the Lamb's Book of Life of course you go to the next to the next passage in Revelation chapter 17 and it doesn't say the Lamb's Book of Life anymore and it talks about people who've never had their names written in the book of life and so it looks to me like what happens is there are people who never have their names written in the book of life there are people who then can have their names blotted out of the book of life and then there are people who have their names written in the book of life and they end up in heaven with the Lord and that's what you see with the book of life in Scripture and again if that goes against your doctrine I don't care so you have that in Scripture so anyway he in this passage verse four again let's look let's look or verse five let's look at it again talking to people who were going to the church at Sardis and he said Jesus is the one look it's all in red Jesus is the one who says this he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the book of life and the implication there is that those who don't overcome will not be dressed in white garments and they will have their names blotted out and that's an indication that they already have their names in that's not a good thing now one of the problems with that is that you have the situation with God where you know God is somebody who knows the end from the beginning and so why would God have a book in the first place with people's names in it does God not know everybody right he knows everybody and God has an eidetic memory in other words he can't forget anything right and so God can't forget anything so he doesn't have a book of life so that he can remember you so that's not the purpose of it purpose of the book book of life is not because God needs to have good records that he can refer to when he's having a problem remembering something because he doesn't forget anything he doesn't learn anything he he just knows everything and what that lets you know is that the book of life is not for God so who's it for and when you're when you're part of the reason that I'm bringing that up is because God knows the end from the beginning and so he knows who's in he knows who's out he knows who's going to change their mind he knows all of that stuff and so why would God be blotting anybody out why would that be going on if God knows everything and again it's because the book isn't for God the book is for somebody else and so we got a whole group of people who are up in heaven who don't have who don't know the end from the beginning who are not omniscient who do not know everything that includes angels and that includes people right and so the Bible talks about the fact when one person gets saved all the angels in heaven rejoice and that's so that's a that's a very cool thing so there's probably like this huge ceremony that takes place somebody gives their life to Christ repents of their sin all the Angels start rejoicing God goes pull out the book and write his name in you know and that kind of thing and there's rejoicing over that whole thing and then on the other hand what if somebody's name got blotted out that would be pretty intense pull out the book blot him out and that's the warning that Jesus gives in this passage and so you don't want your name blotted out of the book of life and so the the answer to that for to from to keep you from having your name blotted out of the book of life is don't move it's not work harder it's don't move you gave your life to Jesus you began walking with him you need to continue in your walk with God you need to be you need to bloom where you're planted you need to have your roots going down deep into the soil that God planted you in you need to follow the Lord for the rest of your life don't move is the answer that God gives that's what the word abide means you abide in Christ you just don't move and so do you want to move how many how many of you would like to walk away from Jesus and just leave the guy behind raise your hands and nobody's gonna raise their hand to that and so it's not a hard thing and it's not it's not something that's overwhelming it's just the idea that I don't need to move so just stay where you're planted and continue to grow with Christ he says but I will confess his name I will not blot his name his name out of the from the book of life but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches and that's a reference to the fact that Jesus confesses us before God whoever confesses me before men he said him I will confess before my father who's in heaven but whoever denies me before men him I will also deny before my father who's in heaven in Luke eight twelve eight through nine that's Matthew chapter 10 32 and 33 twelve eight through nine he says this also I say to you whoever confesses me before men him the son of man also will confess before the angels of God but he who denies me before men will be not denied before the angels of God and so again that's you know this is a pretty simple thing I have a relationship with Christ and what I need to do is I need to continue in it and I need to confess him before men and he did not be ashamed of the Lord if I'm not ashamed of the Lord the Lord is never gonna be ashamed of me he's gonna confess me before the Father and he's gonna be confessing me before the Angels on the other hand if I'm denying Jesus then the warning is that he'll deny me I think that's pretty straightforward and I think it's fair I think it's a good thing Jesus is not being mean to me what he expects is a real relationship where I love him and he loves me he says that he'll confess his love for me before all of Crete all of creation that matters before all of creation that matters if I will confess him before men who are beings that matter but not on the same level as the Father for example right so I'm getting a better deal if I confess Christ than he is if that if he confesses me and so I think that we should stick with him and again it ends with he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches not just to the church to all the churches so each one of these letters is something that we're supposed to be paying attention to and then he goes on to Philadelphia this one's it's this one's a better Church to talk about because again Jesus doesn't have anything negative to say about these guys by the way Sardis comes from the term sardius which is a stone and it's a rare stone and so it's got the it's a rare precious stone it was blood-red and so because it's rare it's the idea of rare and precious and that would be an indication that Jesus is talking about a remnant and you see Jesus talking about a remnant that such Philadelphia on the other hand is a term you guys know what the word Philadelphia means yeah brotherly love and so we called Phil our Philadelphia the city of brotherly love and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write these things says he who is holy he who is true who he who has the key of David he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens that's an interesting title that Jesus gives himself wholly in the past in in this passage is a word that means set apart he's true Jesus is the true way he's the one who set apart and it talks about this key of David and that's a reference to a passage in Isaiah 22 22 where it talks about Alaia kim who was a treasure during that time and he was a guy who had access to the riches of the house of david that's what a treasure was so he who has the key of David he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens when you're talking about a key a key is something that opens a door and so the picture here is that Jesus has access to and gives the riches of God so if you're faithful to the Lord then the Lord's gonna be faithful to you and he wants to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think he's got the key to all the blessings of God that's a good thing to know there's a passage in John 10:10 where Jesus says the thief does not come to except to steal and to kill and to destroy but I've come that they may have life and then they may have it more abundantly 1st Corinthians 2:9 Jesus Paul says as it is written eye is not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him and so God has this plan for us and it includes his blessings and he's got the key that opens to the door to all the blessings and so it's very it's a very good thing to be on the side of Jesus Jesus in another passage in Luke 6:38 said this give and it will be given to you good measure pressed down shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom for with the same measure that you use it'll be measured back to you and again what God has is he's got the ability to bless us in ways that are just ops awesome you know the whole idea of tithing I'm not going to make this a whole thing on tithing but the whole idea of tithing is counterintuitive because when you're talking about tithing in the Bible what God promises is that if I will give him one-tenth of my income I give him 1/10 of my income then what he promises is that he's gonna open a window of blessing and pour out a blessing that I can't even receive it's gonna be so much and so the idea behind that is I give away 10% and God takes the 90% and he blesses it in such a way that I'm more blessed than if I kept the ten that's weird that was weird to me when I when I first got saved and when I first looked at what the Bible had to say about the whole giving thing it's just weird to me and so it was a hard thing to overcome in the sense that you know I you know I'm a I'm a guy who it's like okay Jesus have you said it then I'm in and I will do it and so I'll give a tenth but there was a period of time you know nowadays it's you know the the elders around here take good care of me they're nice to me as far as as far as giving me salary and that kind of thing I have to tell them to stop as a matter of fact and so you know it's like I mean I'm in a position where you know tithing isn't that hard anymore you know we just live on 90% of what we earn and it's not a big deal when I first was doing the tithing I was a poor guy I didn't have a lot of money and so it was an issue and it was a lot of times it was you know I'm gonna pay God or I'm gonna pay the bills and it was a very scary thing and when I found was that God was faithful to his word when he says given it will be given to you press down shaken together and running over I will give into your bosom it's exactly what he meant it exactly what he did in my life and he did one miracle like miracles you guys one miracle after another in providing for my needs and it's something that God used in my life to show me that he was actually there if you don't know if God is there if you don't know if God is real start tithing see what happens you're gonna you're gonna find out that he's real and so in any case God wants to bless you and he's got the ability to do that and so that's the title then he has the conduct commendation and he says I know your works verse 8 see I have set before you an open door key of David once again Keys open doors and no one can shut it for you have a little strength and it kept my word and have not denied my name so he says I know your works and again it's the the indication that God looks at us and he sees what we're doing he knows everything that's going on he's not unaware of my situation when I'm praying and talking to the Lord about my situation I am NOT informing God of anything I'm just talking with him you need to remember that when you're praying and you're telling God what's going on in your life you're not informing God of anything you're just talking with him and that's what he wants he wants to hear your voice he just wants to talk with you he just wants to be around you you know I know pretty much what's going on my daughter's life I don't predict pretty much what's going on in my son's life they don't have to inform me of anything but I like it when they call me up and they talk to me and sometimes you know I'll just let them go on about the things that are going on in their life this is happening that's happening and I already know it I have a wife she talks to them and she relays all the information to me and that I have I have foreknowledge of what they're gonna tell me and I'll just sit there patiently and listen to everything that they have to say cuz I like my son and I like my daughter and you know what Jesus likes you God likes you and he likes to hear from you and he likes to talk with you and and so you know when when we're going before the Lord and give talking to him about our needs we need to recognize that we're again not informing him of anything he knows us he knows our works he says in the passage here you have a little strength and have kept my word and have not denied my name little strength that term is used of persons recovering from an illness that's kind of interesting you had a situation where a church is being described as having a little strength it's like you're recovering from an illness you're recovering from something that knocked you down that the that set you back and when you're talking about church history um we have some of that literally in the end at the end of the twentieth century yeah beginning of the twenty 20th century too you have Protestantism which had rebelled against some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church there was a living faith there but by the time that you get into the twentieth century the 1900s you have a situation where a lot of these churches became dead there was no life to them they weren't teaching the word anymore in fact they were undercutting the word and that remains to this day there was a lot of churches that are doing that and out of that came a number of movements including Calvary Chapel that came out of dead Protestantism basically and began to go back to the teaching of the word of God and a focus on a real walk with God and faithfulness to him and and real worship and and the power of the Holy Spirit your life those kinds of things and it's like the church recovering and one of the things that is interesting about the times that we live in is that the Bible talks about the fact that there's going to be a great apostasy that takes place people who are called Christians are going to be turning away from the Lord and it's something that's warned about over and over in the epistles this apostasy but at the very same time you have a remnant of people who remain faithful to the Lord and it looks like that's an indication of the situation here of the church in Philadelphia again Philadelphia was a church in the first century but if that goes along with church history that's also a pretty interesting thing he says you've kept my word and that's something that's important I need to be somebody who keeps Jesus's word I don't I'm not somebody who keeps doctrines I'm P I'm somebody who keeps Jesus's word and then and it's really important that I take my doctrine then I compare it to the Word of God and when it's a choice between my doctrine and what the Bible actually says which one am I gonna pick that got taught to me early on not by a pastor but by the Lord Himself when I was dealing with some issues about who Jesus was when I was a young Christian I found out that I'd been teaching false doctrine about who Jesus was I had false concepts and I was in a position where I was looking at certain verses that had to do with Jesus and I didn't like him and I didn't want him in the Bible and I didn't understand why God put him there and what was wrong with me was I had a false concept of who Jesus was and when I found out what the Bible actually had to say about who Jesus was it was like the light went on and I went oh oh I get it and from that point on I refused to take a doctrine and put it above the Word of God if the Bible if you got some teaching that you're gonna bring to me and the Bible contradicts the teaching and I can find one passage that every passage in the Word of God is straight from God's mouth all Scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work it is God breathed and so my one verse Trump's your books full of doctrine and it's something that you need to keep in mind so what we have here is the Word of God we need to treat it so you've kept my word so are you keeping his word or do you come up with reasons why that doesn't apply to you you know God I know that you said that by way way back 2,000 years ago but you didn't know my situation here and you didn't know what I was gonna go through and and you know God goes oh oh yes you're absolutely right I agree with you I did not know that would that was coming upon you you know you are the one exception in the last 2,000 years here let me just you know blot that whole thing out of the Word of God do you know just to you know accommodate you and that is not how life is supposed to go what I'm supposed to be doing is keeping God's Word and so again it's important and I'm not a guy who hates doctrine I love doctrine I love I love going through and studying those things I just make sure that when I'm looking at something it can it conforms to what the Word of God says and if it doesn't conform then it needs to change it needs to change not the Bible I need to change not the Bible so again something to keep in mind you kept my word Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free most times when we quote that verse we quote you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free that's not what Jesus said Jesus said if you abide in my word that means you've rooted and grounded in the Word of God if you abide in my word then you'll be my disciples indeed and then you'll know the truth and the truth will make you free there's a process there and and we need to again keep that in mind and again Jesus said whoever confesses me before men I'll confess before the father who's in heaven and so again you have that I know he works see I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it for you have a little strength I've kept my word and I'm not denied my name an open door you know the the idea there is that God opens things up for us so that we have opportunity and actually the church at Philadelphia literally had geography that gave opportunity Smyrna or an earlier church was a port city and Philadelphia was in the same Valley as Smyrna Smyrna was on the on the coast Philadelphia was at the top end of the valley and that valley led to a central plateau up in Turkey and from there to the Far East it was the major trade route in the Middle Ages and so literally you had to go through the city of Philadelphia in the Middle Ages to get to China and so major trade route what's cool about being on a major trade route is you have people from all over the world coming through and it's a great door of opportunity to be able to share the gospel you know we're not so much a college town I mean we have CBC and you know we you know we have the Washington State thing going on and that kind of stuff but we're you know we're not like Seattle when you know we're not even like Ellensburg and in that kind of thing and I always thought that I'd be planted in the college city someplace you know I like talking to college kids I like I like the age group and that kind of thing I like the issues that come up and that kind of stuff and one of the cool things about being in a college town is basically every four years you get a brand new congregation and so what you're doing is for four years you're pouring into a group of people's lives and then they go all over the place and you know they can literally go all over the planet and so it's kind of like God's bringing people to you and then you get to pour into their lives and then God's sending them out where in our city it's pretty much people come here plant themselves and and you're here forever I think some people need to go you need to move out go off and do some things for Jesus and that kind of stuff and in any case these guys had an open door as far as the geography one went and God had specifically put them in a place of influence God does exactly the same thing with you he puts you in places of influence so that you can impact the people who are around you I've seen that all the time although the whole time that I've been a Christian God has taken me and he's putting me in all these different places and then he opens up doors for me doors into people's lives doors and you know opportunities to talk to people opportunities to influence people that kind of stuff he opens up these doors and if I'll step through them God will just do really cool things and so you know people that I'm never going to know you're around people that I'm never going to talk to and the way that the that the the Jesus designed the preaching of the word of God is this you come in here and I tell you what the Bible has to say go through passages inform you on all this stuff and what I'm doing is basically I'm feeding you I'm building you up and the Ephesians chapter 4 says that you then you not me you go out and do the work of the ministry and so I'm here to equip you you're here to be equipped and then to go out and do the work of the ministry you know obviously people get saved here and people bring people to church and I appreciate that and that kind of thing but that is not what that that is not how the gospel is spread the gospel is not spread by people bringing people into church you don't need to stop that because I like sharing the gospel with people so you don't need to do that but on the other hand don't neglect the opportunities that Jesus gives you to be sharing the gospel yourself because you have this influence and a whole group of people your family your friends one of the things that happens is when somebody gets saved usually their whole family gets saved we have whole families of people who got saved from one person giving their life here to the Lord here at Calvary and then they brought their friends and they brought their family and there's all kinds of people that come in and that's the way that God reaches people and so you have an opportunity to be able to reach the people who are around you you have a door of opportunity you have an influence in the lives of these people and you need to take you know you need to take the opportunity one of the things I always pray is Jesus you open the door I'll jump through it I'll go through it and there have been times when I've been praying that in in in the in the midst of the situation I know that I'm on a job usually was a construction job that kind of thing I'm in the midst of the situation and I'm like god it's it's time we need to do something here you open the door I'm gonna do something and then he goes on here and he says indeed I will make those of the synagogue of satan' who say they are Jews and are not but lie indeed I'll make them come and worship before your feet and and to know that I have loved you there are were people that were claiming to be followers of God and what Jesus calls them as the synagogue of Satan there was a there was a period of time where Jews were turning Christians in left and right and having them killed and so there's a there's a long history of conflict between Judaism and Christianity it's an unfortunate thing I during the early centuries of the Christian Church it was a situation where Jews were turning over Christians and again there was persecution that was going on churches that were being burnt Bibles that were being destroyed and a lot of it was from the influence of some of the Jews that turned around and when the church grew teeth what happens is they turn it around and did it back to the Jews that was not supposed to happen the Jews were unbelievers they didn't know the Lord and so they were doing what unbelievers do somebody who's a Christian does not turn around on people and exact vengeance on them for what's happened in previous centuries it doesn't go that way and so there's an unfortunate history between Judaism and Christianity but Jesus recognizes that there are people who claim to be part of the synagogue of God but they're really a part of the synagogue of Satan and he says I'm gonna make them come and worship before your feet and and know that I've loved you because you've kept my command to persevere I will also keep you from the hour of trial which will come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth and you know what I'm stopping right there because I just looked at my clock and I'm five minutes over and I'm sorry I really thought we were gonna go quicker it's not worth not getting into those verses that BIRT right there is a promise not to go through the tribulation period that right there is a promise that they're not going through the tribulation period so that's interesting - so good stuff huh yep I always love to hear what Jesus says about church every time I go through these passages I'm paying attention and you know Lord if you wrote me a letter what would you say that's what and that's what I think about every single time if you wrote me a letter what would you say what would you say about my heart what would you say about my life what would you say about my works what would you say about my heart because that's really what matters that kind of thing and so good good stuff to look at let me pray for you and we'll get you out of here thanks Jesus again for your word thank you Lord for for the warnings many times we have a name that we're and there was a time when absolutely for sure each one of us was alive we don't want to be in a position that Sardis was in where they have a name that they're alive but they're dead we want to be people who are absolutely in love with you no question as far as the purity of our hearts and in our walks with you and Lord if there is a question in our own hearts or we just we just pray that you would come inside and you would do a work in us you said that you're holding the church in your hand holding the seven stars and you're the one who has the seven spirits of God you have the spirit and you have us and Lord we just pray that if we're if we're walking in deadness then you would just give us life fill us with your Holy Spirit help us to be dependent upon you help us to take advantage of the opportunities that you give us you said to Philadelphia there's an open door and Lord each one of us has that and so god we just we just pray that you'd make us influential in the lives of the people who are around us this week and Lord you opened the door we'll step through it bless these people go with them Lord and we ask that you do this all in Jesus name Amen god bless you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 8,728

Rating: 4.7818184 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: aL89dhV5DYM

Length: 63min 28sec (3808 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2019