7 Churches: Philadelphia, the loving assembly; the porter and his fondness

So, thank you again in the Lord's name for your kindness and welcome amongst you. Now, Revelation chapter 3 and verse number 7. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy works.

Behold, I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength and has kept my word and has not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie.

Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly.

Hold that fast which thou hast that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out. I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God.

And I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches. We come now to the letter to the church at Philadelphia and like the assembly at Smyrna.

Interestingly enough, there's a balance here. The second and the sixth assemblies, just as the first and fifth had some similarities and the third and the seventh will. So the second and the sixth assemblies have this similarity in that the Lord has no censure.

There is no correction given. There's nothing pointed to that in some way needs to be addressed. Here is an assembly that was bringing pleasure to the Lord.

An assembly that was delighting the Lord's heart and delighting him in light of its functioning, in light of its faithfulness, in light of the character of the assembly. Interesting, we don't read of great exploits. We don't read of great numbers.

We don't read of great movements. What we read about is a company marked by a little strength, keeping the word of God and honoring his name. Just looking then at the letter that is before us, just to notice the recipients, the city of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, the city that was known in history as a city that was built and established for the purpose of promoting what was known as Hellenism.

Now, that doesn't have anything to do with Helen. What it has to do with is the promoting of Greek culture and Greek thinking in non-Greek parts of the world. So it was a city established by the Greeks in a foreign country here in Asia for the purpose of promoting Hellenism.

For, in their mind, bringing culture to the barbarous races. So in that sense, it was a missionary city. It was a city that had a mission to accomplish, that from it would spread culture and from it would spread knowledge and from it would spread that which would take people who were, in their minds, barbarians and give them culture and education and learning.

So by nature, it was a city marked by a missionary zeal. It was a city really that stood at the junction of some of the great Roman roads into Mysia and Lydia and Phrygia and so on, and a gateway to the great central plateau with what was viewed as an open door into those regions from this city. So the background of a city is helpful in terms of understanding some of the terminology and some of the expressions used.

If we were looking at this in its dispensational outlook, looking at the seven churches as the picture of churches through the ages, of course, when we come to Philadelphia, we like to pat ourselves on the back and say that this is the recovery of truth and the believers gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we know today. But I think in a measure, God has had his testimonies through the ages. I think there has always been testimony for God.

Certainly, it revived about 150 years ago in Great Britain and in many places simultaneously. But rather than trying to fit ourselves into this, I think we should measure ourselves by what is here and seek to learn from it what we can. Look at the revelation of Christ that is given to us here.

How is the Lord Jesus represented to us here? There are two things. There is what he is essentially and what he does administratively, what he is essentially. Thus sayeth he could say here, these things say he that is holy, he that is true.

So it's what he is that is presented to this church. He that is holy, he that is true. Now, it may well be that the reason he presents himself to this assembly is not so much because of a need that he saw, as with all the other assemblies, but rather because of qualities that he saw that he found that he could identify with and appreciate.

Here is what marked the assembly at Philadelphia. It was true. Now, that is not so much true in contrast to to error, but true, meaning genuine, the real thing.

This is really what brings the light and pleasure to his heart. Here is what is real. Here is what is true.

Here is what here is what is conforming to divine standards and divine pattern. And so it is an assembly that is marked by being real, by being true. And also in its character, it is suggested it was an assembly that sought to maintain holy standards.

The compromises that marked Pergamos and marked Thyatira, they were not there. The error that had marked Pergamos and Thyatira, it was not there. The lifeless condition, the entrance of unsaved into the assembly and the toleration of evil that marked Sardis, it was not there.

Here was an assembly that repudiated all of that and was marked by being holy and by being true. What he is essentially, but he also speaks of himself as the one that has the key of David. He that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth.

So it is not now what he is essentially in himself, but it is what he is, what he does administratively. Now, we don't have time to go back to it and look at it, so I'm just going to have to mention it and hope young Christians have an interest in looking at it. Go back to a book in the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah and chapter 22.

And you would find there one of those tremendous things. The spirit of God takes up, we would call them a few obscure verses. Seemingly, you know, you'd read over it and hardly even give it a second thought.

And the spirit of God goes back and takes it and begins to unfold tremendous truth. Tells us about a man named Ascribe, whose name was Shebna, and he was treasurer. He held the keys to the treasure house of David.

He was David's treasurer. And he built himself a sepulcher to be remembered in Jerusalem and in defiance of God's word and what God said was going to happen. And God displaces him and gives the key of David to another man named Eliakim and so on.

But the important thing we have there is the key of David really relates to the one that had the key to the treasure house of all the wealth of the king. So here is the one that possesses the key to the treasure house of all the wealth of God. In a sense, he is moving in this chapter.

He is moving in an administrative sense. I would suggest to you he is moving, administrating for God. And I would think that that is heightened, that is underlined by the fact that four times over, as you come to the end of the letter, he speaks of my God, the city of my God, the name of my God out of heaven from my God.

So he is the one in relationship to his God, and he is administrating the wealth of God to an assembly who is being faithful. So there is then what he does administratively, having the key of David, he opens, no man can shut it and he shuts it and no man can open it. But then I want you to see the record of of what he values.

There was recognized weakness. In Philadelphia, thou hast a little strength, it's going to be tremendously different when we come to the next letter of people who thought they. They had it all here was a company and they recognized in ourselves, we are very, very weak in ourselves, we could accomplish nothing.

So the first thing that he points to that he values is recognized weakness. Now, this may or may not relate to numbers. It may have been a small company, but however large the company, we are still marked by absolute dependence upon God in our service and in our carrying out of the word of God.

So there was there was weakness that marked this company. This is the last thing we would think that he would actually find pleasure in, that he would actually value. Now, just back up a minute, because we've got to really measure ourselves by this.

We have bought in we have bought in so much. To business principles that we begin to think that size is the mark of value, the bigger the assembly, the better the assembly. The louder you shout, the better you are, you know, bigness, numbers, size.

And yet the first thing the Lord points to when he is pointing to what he values is his weakness that was recognized. So there's nothing that is what I say, nothing really that is commendable about smallness. It's not a matter that we should pat ourselves on the back because we're small.

But we never should buy into the success mania of the world that numbers are what indicate that we are right and that God is on our side. Now, he says little weakness. Then he says to them, not only did they recognize their weakness, but they were marked by obedience to the word of God so that their weakness did not hinder obedience to the word of God.

Their weakness did not hinder carrying out the word of God. It wasn't a matter that, you know, we're weak, we're small, we're really not a big presence here in the community. So maybe if we compromise truth, maybe if we set certain things aside, maybe if we're just not so strict about this, then perhaps maybe we'll get bigger.

No, no. Numbers weakness did not in any way compromise faithfulness to the word of God. Thou hast a little strength, he tells them, and he says as well, you've kept my word and you have not denied my name.

Now, keeping his word, I guess we could look at that in many different ways and we could consider it in many different ways. I would take it from the context and from the letter and the character of the letter. It has to do with keeping his word relative to the assembly order and assembly character and assembly obedience.

But certainly it would be a broad thing as well. We'd be a strange group to just carry out the word of God relative to assembly order and put it aside as far as other things. But I would think especially here in light of what we are looking at, it is carrying out the word of God as to assembly order and as to the ordering of God's assembly, the control of behavior in the house of God.

But what I want to come to especially is the honoring of his name. Thou has a little strength, thou has kept my word, thou has not denied my name. Just come back with me for a minute.

If you go back to the Old Testament, to the book of Deuteronomy, and it's around chapter 12, you get on that chapter. I forget how many times it is, six times, is it? You can correct me. Where the Lord speaks about the place where he would place his name, place his name there, place his name there.

What does it mean that God placed his name in a place? What does it mean when we come to the New Testament where two or three are gathered together in my name? There am I. Does it just mean that, well, you know, we say that we're gathered to his name and that's what it means. No, that's not what it means. Coming into the Old Testament, there's the story of Moses.

The children of Israel have sinned. Moses is up on the mountaintop. He has interceded.

He is crying to God to accompany the people of God through the wilderness. And Moses, please show me thy way. And then he pleads, show me thy glory.

And it says then that God did indeed show Moses his glory. But when it tells us that he showed Moses his glory, it says that he declared the name of the Lord. So that the name of the Lord is linked with the display of all that God is in himself, so that when God said, here is where I am going to place my name.

What it meant was here is where God was going to be displayed. That tabernacle. You see, an altar that a rival altar set up by a Jeroboam or by someone else, a rival altar was was too small and too petty to begin to display all that God was in his greatness and in his glory.

It took a tabernacle to give the comers an idea of the greatness and glory of God. That's where God's glory was displayed. But now fast forward to the New Testament, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I. So that an assembly functioning according to New Testament pattern, carrying out the word of God to the best of its ability, without a sense of pride or a sense of we are the people, but seeking in weakness to carry out the word of God and assembly is where the glory of God is displayed.

We passed a number of buildings today on the way to meetings. Religious edifices, churches, those people, people would call them and a couple of them were pretty huge, but they are too small to display all the glory of God. They might say, well, that sounds awfully cocky and awfully proud.

No, no, no. Listen to what I'm saying for just a moment. You cannot take any truth away.

Relative to the way a local church functions without diminishing the glory of God, I'll get there because if you can grasp that, if you can begin to appreciate that, you will realize that I have no business going anywhere else. That's not for me. Yet there are good Christians, good preachers, wonderful gift.

God blesses. That's his business. But I am responsible to uphold where all the glory of God can be displayed.

The glory of headship, the glory of priesthood, the glory of sufficiency, the glory of the spirit of God's sufficiency down. You can go all the way down the line, the plurality of elders, of overseers, the development of gift, the silence of sisters, the head coverings, everything that is done is not some arbitrary truth that has been somehow pulled out of Scripture and somehow just imposed on people. Every truth is linked with the person of Christ.

You cannot take away any of those truths without somehow denying something about the Lord Jesus. And so an assembly, whatever its size, whatever its weakness, if it is functioning according to New Testament pattern, is a place where all the glory of God is displayed. And all the all the name of Christ is declared.

Everything else is just too small, coming short, compromising, finding unessential truth concerning the Lord Jesus. Think I'm exaggerating? Ask some of your evangelical friends about what happens where they meet. Sisters don't have to wear head coverings.

That's obsolete. That's just Paul's prejudice against women. And, you know, sisters can preach.

And, you know, one man alone is the minister. There's not a plurality of gift development there. And on and on and on it goes.

Everything set aside as non-essential. We have much of which to confess as failure before God as assemblies. But yet we have much to thank God for that to us has been committed to us, has been revealed a pattern of truth relative to local church testimony that is the highest privilege we can have collectively as believers.

So having said that, let me just back up a minute and let me just impress every young believer here. If I can, with God's help, with something of the honor of what it means to be linked with a local testimony, not just a matter that someday you decide to come into fellowship and you take your place because parents have and grandparents have and friends are in. And, you know, you're getting to the age now when you go to conferences, it's kind of awkward to sit back.

And, you know, that's, you know, think of the honor, think of the honor bestowed upon you and upon me that we can be linked with a testimony that has the privilege of displaying on earth all that God is in his fullness and in his glory. You're part of that testimony. Are you a part of that which bears witness to the honor of the Lord Jesus honoring his name? Let me just talk about the result then of their faithfulness.

I have set before thee an open door. Now, perhaps the interpretation of this verse has been somewhat colored by the fact that normally it is looked at dispensationally. What I mean by that is this is the recovery of truth in the 1800s when in both England and in Dublin and in Scotland and in several other places, even on the continent, simultaneously unknown to each other.

There were groups of Christians who rediscovered what we call assembly principles and began meeting together just as we met this morning, unknown to each other, thinking that there were no other such companies throughout the world. They began meeting that way. And soon as the assemblies began to function in that way, they realized the responsibility with the gospel and began sending missionaries out throughout the world.

And so you have read or heard, or at least I hope you have if you're young. And if you haven't read this instead of some of the other things you read books about men like Anthony Norris Groves and Hudson Taylor, Adonai Rajah, men that went out and sought to further the gospel and further the work of God on other lands. And so the open door here frequently has been referred to as missionary doors.

I don't want to limit that in any way, but I think there's something more involved. Something even wider and greater than that that is involved. Here was an assembly who was seeking that was seeking by divine help to obey the truth that was revealed to it, to carry out the truth that God had revealed to them to carry out.

And as a result, because of their faithfulness, this one who is the steward, the treasurer of the treasure house of God says, I am going to open the doors of God's treasure house to you. And I'm going to open a door that no one can shut because I open and none can shut and I shut and none can open. So what am I saying is here? What I see here really is this tremendous truth of encouragement that when truth is obeyed, he guarantees more truth and the ability to obey it.

You've obeyed what I have revealed. I am going to reveal more and enable you to obey that as well, because he says, thou hast a little strength. I'm sorry.

I know thy works. Behold, I have set before the open door that no man can shut. Thou hast a little strength.

So that the preservation, the perpetuation, the continuity of testimony, because you're obeying, I am going to keep that door open and truth and the ability to obey it will be yours. Now, that's a tremendously encouraging and comforting thing when it comes to the furthering of assembly testimony and the carrying out of assembly testimony. Let me just go back up and make it personal for a moment.

Because the very same principle applies when it comes to personal obedience to the word of God, as I obey the word of God, God reveals more of his truth to me for me to obey. And if I see truth and refuse to obey it, then it is very likely that that is going to be a roadblock in my Christian progress. Now, it's not that God can't reveal more.

I'm just saying if I am refusing to obey truth that has been made clear to my conscience, then it may well be that God will not reveal more truth because divine truth comes from the treasure house. It's something that is valuable. It's not just something to be cast needlessly before people who think little of it.

So then maybe it's time for an examination. Let's start at the very bottom. First rung, you're saved.

You have seen the truth of baptism, but not yet. And your Christian life seems to be getting nowhere. Well, you're baptized and you've seen that your place that God intends you as a believer to be part of a group who are seeking to be a help one to another, and you've seen the assembly as the right place.

But you're either afraid. You're just not sure that you could really be what you're supposed to be or, you know, and you could begin listing the excuses. That's all they are.

If God has revealed truth, God expects you to obey it. That's what he says to the assembly here. Not because you're confident that you can take the next step.

No. Recognized weakness, even an obeying truth, recognized weakness, consciousness that I am so frail and so weak. So prone to fall.

Yet, he says, that's the very reason I've set before you an open door, because you realize how weak you are. You realize how failing you are and you've obeyed what I have given you. Now I'm sitting before you a door.

And so the first step is baptism. Then there's the step of linking yourself with a testimony to the honor of the Lord Jesus. And from there, you can go all the way, can't you? You can be in thinking of all the things that God has brought before us of truth that we should be obedient to and bowing to as we seek to serve him.

The word of God is actually replete with illustrations that would confirm what we are talking about. For example, if you go back to the days of a king by the name of Josiah, Josiah came to the throne as a boy of eight. And perhaps eight years later, he begins moving for God and cleansing the temple and setting things right in the land, seeking to obey the word of God.

And when they go into the temple, they found there a book turned out to be the law of Moses. And the book is opened and it's read. And more truth is revealed so that Josiah, who was moving on the basis of truth that he had, it is then revealed to him even further about the Passover.

And they kept the Passover and so on and other reforms that came in. He moved in light of what God had revealed to him. And as a result of that, God revealed more to him.

Come with me to a number of years later, captivity and post-captivity and a small group have come up and there's been comings and goings. And now we're into the days of Nehemiah. And in Nehemiah, chapter eight, the people are gathered together to hear the word of God read.

And the first day, the word of God is read and the people are weeping and Ezra and the others comfort the people, not a day for weeping. The joy of the Lord is your strength and so on. And they return the second day to hear the word of God again.

And it's revealed to them through that word that they should keep something called the Feast of Booze, and they kept it so that every step of obedience. God revealed more truth. That's a principle of Christian living.

Someone has said the best commentary on the Bible is to obey it. As we obey it, more truth is open to us as we obey what God shows us, he gives us something more to obey. And I think that's what's in view here in in what he is saying to this assembly in their weakness, in their sense of dependence upon God.

They had obeyed what he had given them to carry out, and he was guaranteeing more truth and more ability to carry out that truth. Tremendous thing to think that this door of truth was open to them, but I don't want to limit also the idea of a door, not just of truth, but a door of service. Paul uses the expression, doesn't he? On several occasions in both Corinthians and in Colossians of open doors in the gospel, a great door and effectual is open to me.

Here's a tremendous opportunity for the gospel. So that an assembly that is functioning as God intensive to function, seeking in simplicity and in humility and independence to carry out the word of God, there will be doors open for service. Doors opened to which the assembly can move and seek to move for God in outreach work and in gospel work and in contacts with others.

It's all what is here, I think, in this tremendous teaching of what is before us in the assembly, in the church at at Philadelphia. But the assembly knew resistance. It wasn't just an easy go.

He says, I will make them who are of the synagogue of Satan. So there was opposition. There were Jews at Philadelphia who opposed Jews who claimed I would gather from the wording here and from what is suggested Jews who claim that this is really not the real thing.

These people are just imposters. They are not the real testimony for God. We are.

So there was opposition, there was resistance that they knew from the those who claim to be, as we are told here, who say they are Jews, but do lie. They are of the synagogue of Satan. What was going to happen? I want you to see not just that they had to face resistance, but I want you to see the radical change divine sovereignty was going to make.

I will make them to come. And to worship at my feet. Now, it does not mean don't misunderstand this.

It doesn't mean they were going to worship the church at Philadelphia. That's not the idea. But rather, through the faithfulness of this company, through the faithfulness of a small company carrying out the word of God, God would see to it that others would be saved.

They will come and recognize that the God you worship is the God they should worship. Now, there's a very, very vital principle. Again, I'm underlining some things, especially with a view to young Christians.

Somewhere, sometime, somehow there is going to come to your mind this suggestion. I really would like to see my friend get saved. I really would like to see that person hear the gospel.

I really would like to somehow see that person be willing to come listen to the gospel. But to do it, you have to compromise something. Well, if you're a girl and he's a guy.

Well, I'll go ahead and I'll go out on a date with him, because then maybe I can get him to come to a meeting and he'll get saved. Or if if it's a guy and a bunch of guys, well, you know, maybe if I go along with them to where they go, then maybe I can invite him to where I go. Or maybe if I, you know, just pal around with the guys more, go to the games with them, do the things they do, maybe then they'll just kind of accept me and I can get them to come to hear the gospel so that I will compromise my principles, I will compromise what God wants for my life, because really what I what I have is a good, good motive.

I want to see this person get saved. And that's the way that I'm going to get them to come in and hear the gospel is by just, you know, just this once. OK, maybe I'm being a bit blunt, but let me just put it in other terminology.

That I think will help you. Let me just phrase the question this way, do you think God will let anyone go to hell because you have obeyed the word of God? Do you think that if you are faithful to the word of God and you are obedient to the word of God, that God is going to let someone perish because you were faithful? You might say that's that's ridiculous, of course, but you see, the other thinking was just the opposite, that I have to be disobedient, I have to be unfaithful so that God will save this person. No, no, no.

Never think that way. Never begin to think that somehow that my failure is going to result in God blessing someone else. God can do that.

He is sovereign. Wonderful, wonderful to think that God can overcome some of our greatest blunders and bring blessing out of them. Thank God.

But for me intentionally to go into something compromising divine standards with the view that, well, it's going to bring blessing to someone is absolute folly. How did this assembly influence those who were against them by compromising? No, God says you are faithful. I will bring them who are against you and I will make some of them to come.

Doesn't say they're all going to get saved. That would be presumption. That would make us think that everything will work out wonderfully.

No, there were those who were against the assembly at Philadelphia, those who railed against it, those who blasphemed it, those who stood against it and claimed it was false. God says you be faithful, you keep doing what you're doing and I will make some of them to come. I will bring some of them to recognize that what you have is the right thing.

I will take care of saving some of them. So the lesson is indelibly inscribed here for us. A pathway of faithfulness, a pathway of obedience is what is vital in Christian testimony, not with arrogance and not with pride.

God forbid that that should ever mark us. We have nothing of which to be proud of. We have nothing in which to glory in ourselves, nothing in which to pat ourselves on the back.

We have had more truth handed to us than the majority of believers in the world today have ever even heard, ever been exposed to in their lives. And we've had it handed to us in our own two hands by men who have mined the truth from the word of God. So we have nothing in which to boast.

Ours is a place of absolute weakness, dependence upon God. But we see here then the radical change that he promised. And it is wonderful to think, isn't it, what he says, I will make them to come and to worship at my feet and to know that I have loved thee.

When I go to Ephesians chapter five, you all know those words, don't you? Christ loved the church. So Ephesians five reminds me that Christ loved the church, the body loves every believer, loves everyone who has ever trusted him as savior. The church, which is his body, he loves.

When I go to Galatians chapter two, I'm reminded individually Christ loved me and gave himself for me. I would suggest to you that when I go to John chapter 11, I am reminded that Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus, that he not only loves the church, which is his body. He not only loves the individual believer, but he loves families.

He loves Christian families, has a special affection for the Christian family. Finally, when I come to Revelation three, I find he loves local companies, local companies, local assemblies. In other words, he loves the assembly at Waukesha, loves the assembly at New Lenox, loves the assembly in Mount Sterling, loves the assembly in Ontario, loves the assembly in Blue River, loves the assemblies wherever they are.

I have loved thee. Do you love the assembly that he loves? Do you love what he loves or is it just. You know, take it or leave it convenient, I can fit it into my schedule, I can somehow work it into my life.

Or is it something really that you love, love because he loves it, love it because his honor is linked with it. Love it because it expresses his glory, love it because it is a testimony in a dark world to to him for his pleasure. I have loved thee.

The regard in which he held it. It is to the Church of Philadelphia that we that he gives the. The promises, and I just will mention this for the sake of young believers.

You will eventually somewhere be exposed to those who have teaching that says that. The church believers of our current day will experience what is called the tribulation go through the tribulation. It is in this assembly that the Lord, the risen Lord gives the assurance.

He noticed what it says in verse number 10, because I was kept the word of my endurance, my patience. I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try the earth-dwellers. Now, you'll just have to take my word for it for now, but just for now, look it up for yourself, follow it for yourself.

That expression, them that dwell upon the earth, the earth-dwellers, it is what is going to occupy chapter 7, rather chapter 6 and on. Those that dwell up, those whose home, those who are absolutely at home upon earth. They've settled down.

This is their abode, the ungodly. And so here then is this promise given to this faithful assembly, truth that is revealed because they were living in the good of other truth. He reveals truth to them that hitherto was not revealed.

And that truth is you will not pass through any of what they will pass through the hour that he speaks of here of temptation or the hour of tribulation, which shall come upon all the world. So while that's not the major thrust of our message this afternoon, just don't want to pass by it without just mentioning it for the sake of young believers. Here then is teaching that tells us that the church will not be part of those upon earth during the time of the great tribulation.

And of course, then that is confirmed in verse 11, behold, I come quickly. Two things about the coming of the Lord Jesus for the church that you will find beginning in John chapter 14 through to revelation chapter 22. Let me just show you something.

Look back at chapter one of revelation. Look at verse number seven, chapter one, verse number seven, behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him. They also, which pierced him and all kindreds, kindreds of the world shall wail because of him.

Behold, he cometh revelation three, behold, I come quickly now. Big difference. Here's the difference.

Where's the English teachers? He's still with us. OK, third person, first person. Behold, he behold, I. Whenever it speaks of the Lord Jesus coming for the church.

It's always first person singular. If I go, I come. If I will be tarry till I come, what is that to the behold? I come quickly, behold, I come quickly, even so come and so on so that whenever it is his coming for the church, first person singular.

Most of the time when he speaks of coming to the earth for Israel and coming into the earth to judge, it is third person singular. Behold, when the son of man cometh, will he find in those days of the son of man cometh behold, he cometh with clouds so that there is something personal. There is something intimate.

There is something special about his coming for the church. Not that there's not something wonderful about his coming back to earth to reign and rule and and to overthrow all opposition, but that's always third person. It's always he, the son of man, when he cometh.

And the second thing about it is if you look at the tenses, I know grammar, it's horrible. Listen, you never get away from grammar. It's always there, always sparing you in the face.

If you were to look at the grammar of John 14, if I go, I come. It's really if I go, I am coming. It's almost as though it's it's any moment.

It's almost like it's happening, which in the midst of happening, behold, I come coming quickly. It's almost present tense. I'm coming.

It's something to be imminently enjoyed and appreciated. I'm coming. It's not just future.

When the son of man cometh, that's future. Behold, he cometh, that's future. Here's something that is imminent, that is on the horizon that could happen at any moment.

And so that's why he says so clearly, I'm going to keep you from the hour of tribulation, the hour of temptation, because I'm coming quickly to receive you to myself. And so here then to this church that was seeking in obedience and independence to carry out the word of God is given some of the clearest prophetic teaching that we have in all of these chapters that deal with messages to the churches. Behold, I come quickly.

Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. I would just mention in passing, because it has intrigued me, is there a crown for an assembly? You know, we think of crowns individually, and that's true. But here's a message to a local assembly that the assembly had the responsibility to hold fast divine truth that they had, not to let it go, so that they would not lose their crown.

Just an aside and an interesting thought. But let me come then to the recompense that he affords them. It's interesting that when you look at the other churches, he's giving them something.

I will give to eat of the tree of life. I will give manna. I will give a white stone.

I will give and so on. Throughout these messages to the overcomers, there are things that are given. When you come to the church at Philadelphia, there's nothing given.

There's something that's made of them. Behold, he says to him that overcometh, will I make, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. So what do we make of all of that? Those who upheld, those who upheld divine truth.

What does Paul say a local assembly is it is house of God, church of the living God, it is pillar and ground of truth. It is the bulwark. It defends the truth, but it also upholds the truth, not just keeping it to itself, but upholding it for others to see.

He says you have been a pillar in testimony for me, despite being weak, despite thinking yourselves so small and insignificant. You have been a pillar upholding testimony for me upon earth. I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God for eternity.

Just think of that. Think of the compensation for faithfulness here. Think of the compensation for the privilege of upholding testimony for God here in pillar and ground of truth character.

He says you'll be a pillar eternally upholding and displaying the glory of God. I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he says, I will write upon him the name of my God and the city of my God. Little strength, you have kept my word, you have been obedient to the truth of God, you have sought to the very best of your ability to maintain my honor here upon earth.

He says I am going to honor you with the eternal inscription written upon you, the name of my God and the name of the city of my God. And then he said you have sought to obey the revelations I have given you. You had a little strength, you haven't you've kept my word and you haven't denied my name.

You have maintained my name in all of its dignity and in all of its honor. He says a day is coming when and recompense for that, I'm going to write upon you my new name. What does that mean? If his name is the unveiling of his glory, then his new name are fresh unfoldings of his glory, fresh revelations of his glory and of his person.

Now, just come back with me for a minute because I want to point something out, and then I think it ties in with what I'm saying. When we looked at the church at Ephesus, at Smyrna, at Pergamos, at Thyatira, at Sardis, and when we look at Laodicea, we will find that when the Lord addresses those assemblies, he reaches back into chapter one and highlights some feature that was revealed about him in chapter one. You can look at that.

So that he is drawing upon the revelation of chapter one as he would deal with all of those assemblies. When he comes to the church at Philadelphia, he gives them a fresh revelation that wasn't in chapter one. He says, I am holy and true.

Now, those things weren't mentioned in chapter one. He's unveiling something new about himself. So it begins with a fresh revelation of what he is to his people.

And at the end, he promises unending revelations of what he is. That is going to be the portion we mentioned at the beginning. So let me come back to it.

We mentioned that every true believer is an overcomer. Every true believer has overcome. So that every true believer is going to spend eternity with unending, unceasing revelations of the glory of Christ.

There will never come a time, never come a time, when we'll just say, well, that's it. It's over. Nothing more to learn.

Nothing new to discover in this wondrous person. No new unfoldings of his glories and of his beauties that we can appreciate. What's next? Everything on earth, that's what happens.

What's next? You get tired of it. It kind of gets stale after a while. You begin it, and it seems so exciting and so wonderful and so thrilling.

And eventually, it gets kind of stale. And you're looking for something else. And something new.

And something fresh. And something different. Some variety.

Life is wonderful because of variety. But this will never, never cease. This will never grow stale.

This will never grow old. This will never become outmoded. Won't have to find something new to occupy us.

Eternal revelations of this wonderful person. And I would gather, to the measure in which I have obeyed, to the measure in which I have been faithful here, to that degree I will enjoy. I will enjoy those fresh revelations.

Everyone will be totally satisfied in heaven. Everyone will be totally thrilled in heaven. But I think some people are going to be more satisfied, more thrilled, because of what they have known of Christ on earth.

You see, this little period of time in which we are living that we just take for granted, among all the many things we are doing, we are developing a capacity to appreciate Christ. Developing a capacity. So, you know, it's like going to an art museum.

I hate them, because I know very little of art. But you go to an art museum with a class trip or for some other reason, and, you know, you enjoy the beauty of the particular portrait or the particular painting. But someone else comes in who's studied art.

They have a greater capacity to enjoy it. You may think, boy, this is beautiful, this is wonderful. They come in and their capacity is far greater.

And they enjoy it even more than you do. But you don't know. You're enjoying it, but theirs is even greater.

And then perhaps in comes the artist himself. And he knows what it costs to do that painting. He knows all that was involved in that painting.

He enjoys it even more. So we are developing here upon earth a capacity to enjoy these fresh unfoldings and these wondrous revelations of the Lord Jesus. See, it's worth going in for.

It's worth putting everything I have into the place where his honor is maintained. It's worth living my life so that his honor can be maintained in God's assembly. Not just to see the assembly continue.

Yeah, that's necessary. Not just to see the meetings going and somebody's there to take care of Sunday morning and someone's there to preach. No, something greater than that.

To realize that the testimony is a testimony to him. It is for his honor, for his glory. And as a result, pouring myself into it to do all I can to uphold his honor in the place where he has been rejected.

May the Lord help us and encourage us in light of the tremendous recompense that lies ahead that we might be faithful to him and seek to obey him and to carry out his word. Shall we pray? Father, we bow in thy presence and return thanks again. We thank thee for the reverent way thy people have listened and for the word of God with all of its fullness and all of its richness that is open to us.

Our confession before thee is that we appreciate so little and glean so little from thy word when it is so filled with treasures for our souls. We do pray to bless thy people. Grant that what has been said will simply serve as a stimulus for them to come to the word of God and to appreciate its depths for themselves.

And grant that each of us today may as a result of the challenge of the ministry of the word of God desire to walk in obedience to carry out the word of God and to honor thee in assembly testimony. We commit ourselves to thee. Some will be traveling soon.

Give safety, we pray. And grant thy hand upon all of us. Remember the gospel meetings in the area tonight in the state of Wisconsin here.

Remember the special effort and the burden for souls here in Waukesha. Those who have been prayed for and mentioned we commit them to thee. Pray they'll be out tonight and that the gospel will be preached with power and with liberty.

We commit ourselves to thee. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.