Philadelphia

I have been going through a series of messages going through the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation. We have gone through the first five churches. We're now going to church number 6, the church in Philadelphia. As I've made mention going through the other sermons, God wants us very much to have a certain way that we think. He wants us to, as it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5, to bring every thought to the captivity, to the obedience of Jesus Christ, as we heard today in the sermonette. It's not easy to do that. We need God's Holy Spirit to do that. If we think that we can do without God's Holy Spirit, without being converted, we are only fooling ourselves. And as our sermonette speaker talked about, it was very true. We need God's very special help to do that. So we have these mental blueprints of what God would want us to do. We see those in the scriptures very plainly. But we need more than just to have a mental idea, a mental blueprint. We need to put those into action. As we've read in the past, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10, that we are Christ's workmanship created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So I thought prior to beginning a very long series of sermons going through the book of Isaiah, all the various prophecies are going to be going through a lot of Christian living in the book of Isaiah, much like we found as we went through the book of Daniel. Great deal of Christian living there. We'll find a great deal of Christian living in the book of Isaiah as well. But we want to make sure our minds are properly set up to receive that instruction and to move forward with that instruction. So Jesus Christ—and we want to pause for a moment and think about what Jesus Christ is doing with these epistles to these seven churches in Revelation. Jesus Christ, you know, the entirety of Scripture has been inspired by God. Every word has been put in Scripture just the way God and Jesus Christ wanted them to be placed for our edification, for our understanding.

And then we come to Revelation where we see seven very specific messages to the bride of Christ.

The bride of Christ, as we've taught in the past, as we look at those seven churches, we believe—I believe from a historical point of view—there were seven historical church areas. I believe—I think you probably do as well—that these also are talking about types of Christians. And any of these seven types can be found in any of these historical eras.

And Christ makes it a special point of saying to listen to all of the messages, not just the message of the particular historical era you might be a part of, because many of these people didn't know what era they were a part of. So today we're going to take a look at the sixth installment of this series. Prior to getting there, just take another moment to look at what we've covered to this point. The message to the church there in Ephesus was that Godly zeal must be reinforced with godly love. They were a church of a great deal of zeal, a great deal of activity, but they had lost their first love.

And having love is essential for the bride of Christ. So that's an attitude. That is a mental framework that we need, a part of our mental framework that we need. The church in Smyrna. Most of the churches had things that were commendable, said about them, things that they needed to correct, with two notable exceptions. We'll be covering one of those exceptions today, the church in Philadelphia. The other church that did not have any correction being brought to was the church in Smyrna.

They were going through so much persecution, so much in the way of trial, that God the Father and Jesus Christ felt at best not to put anything else on their plate. And the message to them was to remain faithful to true values despite opposition. And they were. And we can learn so much from them. The third church, Pergamos, and the fourth church, Thyatira, in some ways similar situations.

In both situations, there was some compromising going on. Now, there were people who were doing things properly. There are people who were living the way God had wanted them to live, and Christ wanted them to live. They received certain commendation for that. But there was also some compromising, and that's something that we need to be very careful with in our day and time today.

With Pergamos, there was some spiritual compromising taking place. With Thyatira, the compromise in many ways centered around the work place, the workforce, them having to be a part of labor unions or guilds, and all that went in with that day and time, and the compromising they may have done to be a part of having a job, and so forth. Then, last time we were together, we looked at the church in Sardis, a very difficult church to discuss in the sense that Jesus Christ says nothing of commendation to that church. It was a church that was dying or dead.

And we discussed at that time, what do you say to a church? What do you say to the people of God who are in the process of dying? We went through five different things at that point. Okay, now we come to the present sermon, the church in Philadelphia. With each of these churches, I've given you just ballpark figures, dates. I want to do the same here. With the church in Philadelphia, the ballpark dating would be 1933 to present day.

And again, we can fudge on that date to some degree. No one's going to, you know, peg their salvation to these dates, but roughly, Mr. Armstrong was discussing and coming into the truth in the late 20s. And then, he was with the Sardis era for some time. Then the Philadelphia era began. So 1933, roughly, to present day. I have been quoting, and I want to quote again, from this book, The Seven Epistles of Christ by Taylor Bunch. Again, this book is available as a download on internet if you would like to get that. But it's interesting as you take a look with all of these churches, as Jesus Christ is getting and relating to these people, the message that we see in history, and then we relate that to the spiritual aspects of the spirit of the church we're talking about.

So I'm quoting now from Seven Epistles of Christ by Taylor Bunch regarding the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was located about 28 miles southeast of Sardis. The city was founded in 189 BC by Attilis Philadelphus, for whom it was named. Some believe it was so named because of the love and loyalty existing between Philadelphus and his brother, the King of Lydia. The city was also known as Decapolis because it was one of the ten cities of the plain. It was sometimes called Little Athens because of the magnificence of its public buildings.

Its modern Turkish name is Al-Ashiar, which means the city of God or the exalted city. Philadelphia has thus been given a number of new names. Of course, as we go through and read in the book of Revelation, that is something that Christ talks about, the new names. Going back to the quote, Philadelphia guarded and commanded an important pass through the mountains between the Hermas and Meander valleys. It was thus the keeper of the key to the door or gateway to the eastern highlands, with power to open and to close according to the will of the officials.

Through this portal, passed the mail and trade commerce to the west, to the wide regions of the central and eastern Lydia. And as we talked about earlier, Lydia was one of the richest kingdoms of the ancient world. So we see here again a door and a key to a doorway being mentioned to the church or in the history of Philadelphia.

Going on with the Seven Epistles of Christ quotation, Philadelphia is subject to frequent and severe earthquakes.

Pause for a second. In our history, as you and I have lived through the Philadelphia era of God's church, have you ever gone through an earthquake? How many have gone through an earthquake?

Quite a few have actually gone through an earthquake. I went through a number of earthquakes when I was going to college in California. Probably the most severe that I went through was in February of 1971. At that point, it was considered the 10th worst quake in California history. My alarm clock was set to go off at 6 a.m. in the morning, and the earthquakes struck one minute before that time. I was laying in bed, and it felt like there were four very strong men, one in each corner of my bed, that were trying to throw me out of my bed. And then as I looked at the walls, I saw cracks about two inches wide going down the walls of the dorm. My bed was situated right next to the restroom. The lid on the toilet was rumbling around and shaking. The lid of the toilet flew off and fell out and broke. 60 people lost their lives in that earthquake, 6.9 on the Richter scale. And so I know what it's like to be shaken up. The city of Philadelphia had a lot of earthquakes. There were a lot of shakings up that were going on in Philadelphia. Brethren, in history that you know of God's Church, have we seen our share of periods of shake-up? I think that we have.

So going back to the discussion here. Philadelphia was subject to frequent and severe earthquakes. Trench declared that no city of Asia minored suffered more or so much from violent, often recurring, quakes. The historian Strabo, who lived between 64 BC and 21 AD, said that Philadelphia was full of earthquakes. He may have been there at the time of the great earthquake that destroyed the city in 17 AD. That was only one of a series of quakes that kept the citizens in a state of fearful expectancy. Strabo wrote, Philadelphia has no trustworthy walls, but daily in one direction or another they keep tottering and falling apart. The inhabitants, however, pursue their original purpose, ever keeping in mind the writhing panes of the ground and building with a view to counteracting them. Again, let's pause for a moment. With all the shake-ups we've seen in God's Church that you've experienced in the Philadelphia era of God's Church this particular time, one of the things I think that is true for the Church of God in this time period is that we have remembered the purpose for which God has called us. Just as these inhabitants of Philadelphia kept on rebuilding their town after shake-up after shake-up and so on and so forth, they had a purpose in mind and they were going to accomplish their purpose, regardless of the shake-ups. I just think that's interesting. Strabo was astonished that a city should ever have been founded in such a locality and he questioned the sanity of the people of re-entering the ruined city and planning to rebuild to withstand the future shots which were momentarily expected. He felt that when people are driven from a city by earthquakes, they ought to be wise enough never to return. He declared that the walls of those houses were increasingly opening and sometimes one other times another part of the city was experiencing some damage. The citizens therefore lived in a constant state of dread of the quaking earth and falling buildings. Because of this situation, the people often fled to the open country and lived in tents or booths in earthquake sessions in order to keep themselves beyond the range of disaster. In other words, moving away from the quote, they were used to going out.

And we're going to read in Revelation how Christ says there's coming a time for Philadelphia when they will go out no more.

Although the city was often shattered and migrations from its ruins were frequent so that the citizens lived in constant terror yet despite of an ever-present sense of danger, the brave Philadelphians were determined to make the city realize the aims for which it was founded.

I think that's very true for those of us in this room and those of us who have lived through the various shakeups in our passage of the way of God today. Lastly, it says, this message reveals the best spiritual condition of any of the seven churches. The letters addressed to a small but exceptional company who had remained faithful in the midst of large numbers who had failed.

That sound familiar? How many people did we used to have here in Chicago? How many people do we have now?

The letters addressed to a small but exceptionally exceptional company who had remained faithful in the midst of a large number who had failed. The message indicates a commendable change for the better from the sardine condition of spiritual deadness to the Philadelphians had come a renewal of life and love and missionary zeal, a resurrection from spiritual death, returned to the first love of the early Ephesian period. So let's now take our time, brethren, and go back to Revelation chapter 3.

Let's read about this church from Scripture and begin to analyze what our elder brother Jesus Christ has here for us. Revelation chapter 3 verses 7 through 13. I'm just going to read it in its entirety here and then we'll go back and start analyzing this bit by bit. Revelation chapter 3 and verse 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things says, He was holy, He was true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. I know your works. So you have set before you an open door, no one can shut it, for you have a little strength and have kept my word and have not denied my name. Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie. Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept my commandment to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial, which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Okay, there are some similarities between Smyrna and Philadelphia. I may mention that already. Both churches received only praise from Jesus Christ. Both churches suffered from those claiming to be Jews but were not.

Those who they thought they were in God's true church but were not. Both churches had a crown made mention of it. In Smyrna, the crown of life, and that was important to them because there was so much persecution and death and martyrdom that was going on, a crown of life was very significant to that group of people. To Philadelphia, it said, let no man take your crown. Let no man take your crown. Of course, the word crown there is symbolized by a wreath that was given in victory.

Let no one take victory away from you.

And again, in the few years that we've all been in God's church, a few years as God looks at time, there was a time in our church, in our church culture, when people wanted to take away from us the truth we hold so dear. And when people try to take that truth away, you and I would have none of it.

And we founded United Church of God, and we are here to this day making sure no one is taking that crown.

So let's analyze verse 7 here. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right, these things says, He who is holy. Now again, we've got Jesus Christ talking to His beloved bride. Jesus Christ, as He's relating to His loving bride, elements He wants them to think about regarding Him, but also elements that He wants His bride to emulate. He is marrying a like creation. As Jesus Christ and God the Father are holy, we are to be holy. The word holy here is hagios. It's Strong's number 40. It means purity. It means majesty and glory.

Jesus Christ wants His bride to experience the majesty and the glory of the kingdom of God. Doesn't want us to settle for anything that is less than that.

The Adam-Clarke commentary says, regarding the word holy, it says that He is holy in whom holiness essentially dwells, from whom all holiness is derived. So it's important that we realize our elder brother, our groom, wants the bride of Christ to realize where does holiness come from. It doesn't come from us. It comes from God the Father. It comes from Jesus Christ. And we need to make sure that we are imbibing of the Word of God. That we are holding fast to what we see. You heard a sermon, a very good sermon last week by Mr. Brantford about that subject. I wish I could have been here to see his... I think he had a couple of... he had a sword and something else. I can't remember what else he had, but I would love to have seen that. You know, he had his five points about holding fast. We want to hold fast to the beauty of what God has given to us. Those things that are holy. Now, it's interesting. The word for holy as applied to God the Father and Jesus Christ is very similar to the word... you know, haggios is very similar to the word that applies to man. The word for man is haggai. Haggai, meaning saints. Or those sanctified. Or the holy ones. Vines' expository dictionary of biblical words gives that definition and also adds that they are cleansing themselves from all defilement, forsaking sin, living a holy manner of life. So this is what Jesus Christ wants for His church. Forsaking all manner of defilement. Forsaking sin. What is sin? 1 John 3, 4. We want to make sure that we are obeying the law of God. That's what allows us to be the holy ones. Christ is holy. He wants us to be holy. Let's look at... put a marker here. Let's go over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 1.

1 Peter 1, verses 15 and 16.

But as He called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy. So the bride is given this instruction. And again, the bride is not criticized. The bride is commended by Jesus Christ. Basically, the idea is keep on doing what you're doing. Holiness comes from the Father. It comes from Me. Keep on doing what you know to do. Forsaking sin. Making sure all defilement is put away from you. Living a holy manner of life.

So God wants the Philadelphians to remember that holiness comes from God.

Moving on in Revelation 3.7. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, these things says, He who is holy, He who is true. He who is true.

Adam Clark says, regarding this phrase, He who is the foundation of truth, from whom all truth proceeds, and whose veracity in his revelation is unimpeachable. John 17, 17. Your word is truth. What do we live by? Again, we kind of have resonance with the sermonette today. We want to live by every word of God. We want to live by what is true. We want to worship in spirit and in truth, as was brought out. The idea here, regarding true, is there's an idea here of trustworthiness, reliability, and dependability that comes from that title given to God, given to Jesus Christ, our elder brother. Trustworthiness, reliability, and dependability. And remember, this church was talked about as a church with a little strength. So if you've got a little strength, you're very much looking to a power that is trustworthy. If you've got a little strength, you're looking to a power that is reliable. You're looking to a power that is dependable. And that's where we need to be. That's where we need to set our hearts and minds. Scoot over to Revelation chapter 6.

Revelation chapter 6. Notice here a discussion combining two of the great themes in the Bible. Revelation chapter 6 and verse 10. In a cry with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true? How long, O Lord, holy and true? Same thing we saw in chapter 3 verse 7. Holy and true until you judge and avenge your blood on those who dwell on the earth. These folks wanted to know that they could rely on and depend on Jesus Christ to bring the kingdom. And he was going to do that. And he was telling them that he was going to do just that. But that there would be some persecution that would come in the future and prepare themselves for that. Okay, we move back to chapter 3 of Revelation.

Revelation chapter 3 and verse 7. It's the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right? These things says, He who is holy, he who is true. He who has the key of David.

He who has the key of David. What's that all about? What is the key of David? You know, several years ago, somebody who was coming back to the church, they had been baptized in the church. Then they left the church for, I think it was like 15 years, came back to the church and asked me to come visit them. Mr. Delisandro. I've mentioned this in the past, but Mr. Delisandro, is it okay for us as Christians to use logic? And I said, yeah. The Bible is very logical. The way of God is very logical. There's no reason why we shouldn't use logic. Use God's logic. We don't want to try to use Satan's bent and twisted logic. We use God's logic. Logically, we can ask the question, we're asking, what is the key of David?

Jesus Christ says, here, He's holding this key of David. He has the key of David. What does, let's be logical, what does a key do? What does a key do? Now, if we all stand, not maybe all of us, you know, you ladies probably have keys in your purse. I've got one in my pocket, you know, keys come in different configurations. Mine is like probably a lot of yours. Mine is a proximity key. I get close to my car and lots of interesting things happen as a result of what's inside that little key. I don't understand how that goes on, but it goes on. They've got this, my key and my car have got their own little love affair going. There's other kinds of keys. There are security code keys for computers. There are a number of digits, any number of types of keys that the world has. But what does a key do? The bottom line is a key gives you access to something. A key gives you access to something you normally wouldn't have access to unless you had the key. If I didn't have the key to my car, I couldn't get into that. Well, I could break a window, I guess. But if I want to get into the car without damaging the car, I need my key. So one of the things we understand about a key, the key of David, is the key unlocks something. Just as we use keys in locks today to control access to secured places, keys were used in ancient times to control gates to cities. Keys represent, and were symbolic of, government control. Government control. Notice, as it says there, it's the key of David. Now it gives a little more light as to what the key is talking about.

A key unlocks something that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get into. Now, the Bible interprets the Bible. Is there some place or a number of places in Scripture that talks about the key of David? One place. Let's go to that place. Other than Revelation here, let's go to the other place. That's in Isaiah chapter 22. Let's understand what we've got. Isaiah chapter 22.

Isaiah chapter 22, starting here in verse 15.

Thus, as the Lord God of hosts, go proceed to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the house, and say, What have you here? and Whom have you here? that you have you and a sepulcher here, as he who used himself a sepulcher on high, who carves a tomb for himself on a rock. Indeed, the Lord will throw you away violently, O man, and shall surly seize you. He shall surely turn violently and toss you like a ball into a large country. There you shall die, and there your glorious chariot shall be the shame of your master's house. So I'll drive you out of your office and from your position. I'll pull you down. So here we've got this fellow, Shebna.

There's a number of titles we probably could ascribe to him that are relevant to us in our day. Some people say he was like a secretary of state, kind of a PR man, a press secretary, any number of things that you and I would think of today. But let's keep on going down here in verse 20. But it shall be in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. So Shebna's out and Eliakim is in. Eliakim was a man of, he was apparently a godly individual, man of honor, a man of responsibility, a man who was faithful, a lot of very fine qualities here for this gentleman. Now notice verse 22. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder so he will he shall open and no one shut and shut and no and shall and no one shall open. I will fasten him as a peg in a secure place. He will become a glorious throne to his father's house. So here we have this idea of Shebna being cast out, Eliakim being in. And again, the idea here is that this individual, Eliakim, had a key. He was as a steward, he was able to have access to the king. He was able to have access to very secure places.

Christ, in many ways, in a sense, is like this Eliakim. Christ is going to replace all the unjust people who are running government. Christ will run the kingdom of God.

I'd like to read you something from the Beyond Today magazine.

And I quote, a trusted servant to the king wore the key to the king's house on a hook on his shoulder. Notice verse 22. The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder. So a trusted servant to the king wore the key of the king's house on a hook on a shoulder. Therefore, he had the authority to open or close the king's house. Revelation 3, verse 7, uses similar symbolism, speaking plainly of Jesus having the key of David. In ancient Israel, the human king was, in fact, the steward of God, the true king of the land. Similarly, the divine Christ is the steward of the father's kingdom. With that authority, only Jesus can allow or disallow someone's entrance into the kingdom. But no man had that authority. So in Revelation, where it talks about having the key of David, it's talking about having an opportunity that Jesus Christ has the ability to allow people into the kingdom. He's got that key of David. He's of David's lineage. He controls access to the kingdom of God. In your notes, I'm not going to read all these, but in your notes, you might want to jot down Matthew 28, 18, John 5, verse 22, John 5, verse 27, John 5, 22, John 5, 27, and John 17, 2, showing that God the Father has given Jesus Christ all power in heaven and on earth, including the judgment of mankind.

So that's what we're looking at. We're looking at this key, but I want to read something else. Here in the book of Isaiah, something that we think about every year at the feast. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah chapter 9. Verse 6, Isaiah 9, verse 6 and 7. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder.

The government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. So here we see a scripture very well known to us about the government being upon his shoulder. We read that in Isaiah 22. We read it in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 7. So the key of David is access into the kingdom of God, which is only granted by Jesus, Christ, and God the Father. Going back to Revelation chapter 3, let's move on. Revelation chapter 3, toward the end of verse 7. He who opens, no one shuts and shuts and no one opens.

Just as a lyacim can open the gate to have access to the King, we see that Jesus Christ has the key to access to the kingdom of God. Christ can open and close the kingdom to whoever he calls. And, of course, we've got to accept that calling. We've called chosen and faithful, but that calling only comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ of God, family, team. John chapter 10.

John chapter 10. John chapter 10, starting here in verse 7.

Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. But the thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I've come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. So Jesus Christ is the one who opens that door and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. Going on to Revelation 3 and verse 8. I know your works. I know your works. Basically Christ is saying, I know you have served faithfully.

And that's been one of the hallmarks of this era, this time, that you and I have experienced in the Church of God. We have been faithful servants of God. No, we're not perfect. You know, the fact that Jesus Christ did not say anything in terms of corrections at a church in Philadelphia, does that mean they were perfect people? Brethren, you've lived, I believe we've lived through, and this is my speculation, I'll label it correctly as such. I feel we're in the Laodicean era.

But we've lived through the Philadelphia era. Are we perfect? Am I? I'm not. I don't know, maybe if you're perfect, I can come touch the hem of your garment. But, you know, the Christ is saying here that He appreciates our faithful service on His behalf. And the idea that I garner as I'm reading the Scripture here is that the Philadelphians were doing the things that were pleasing to God. Their heart, if you want to put it this way, their heart was in the right spot. Our heart was wanting to do the work, you know, to sacrifice for the work. And whenever those calls, you know, Mr. Armstrong will make calls from time to time saying, you know, we have this need or that need, and the money's just not there. But, you know, lay it upon your hearts, pray about it, fast about it, and, you know, have a special offering. And whenever he did that, the money just came pouring in. He remembers, Mr. Armstrong remembered what it was like back in the early days of the church when God was just calling him and working with him. If you go back in the autobiography in volume number one, you read where he wanted to get on radio. And getting on radio, that one station he was looking at back in the day cost, what was it, $2.40 or something like that, $2.50? What did he have to his name? He had a buck and a quarter. He had about half of what it cost to go on radio. But in faith, in faith he stepped out saying, God somehow will provide. And God did. And God did. Is that attitude? Were we perfect in all that we did? Of course not. And we had problems. We're people. We're flesh and blood. Of course we've got problems. But there was an attitude that Christ appreciates about this era of the church. And basically, he says, you know, keep on doing what you're doing in terms of wanting to do the work of God. Revelation 3.8, I know your works. See I've set before you an open door and no one can shut it. You know, it's interesting. I was looking at Berkeley's commentary on this section of scripture. I want to read you at Berkeley as a say here. We're going to look at a little bit of history and then analyze in terms of the spiritual church of God today. The city of Philadelphia, I'm quoting from Berkeley, the city of Philadelphia was founded with a deliberate intention that it might be a missionary of Greek culture and language to Lydia and Phrygia.

So well did it do its work that by 19 A.D., the Lydians had forgotten their own language and were all but Greeks. Ramsey says of Philadelphia that was the center for the diffusion of Greek language and in Greek letters in a peaceful land and by peaceable means. That is what the risen Christ means when he speaks out of the open door that is set before Philadelphia. Three centuries before Philadelphia had been given an open door to spread Greek ideas in the lands beyond and now there's come to it another great missionary opportunity to carry to men who never knew it the message of Jesus Christ. End quote.

So Philadelphia was given an opportunity to spread the gospel, to spread the word of God. And what did Mr. Armstrong say so many times and you've read it and I've heard it and so on and so forth, that prior to his coming into the church in the 20s when he first started coming into what we had to call the Sardis era, that people just simply worldwide didn't know very much, if anything, about the kingdom of God. But it was through Mr. Armstrong what God was doing through him that now information was being revealed and being disseminated to all the world. To the place where at one point, at one point, we were pushing out, I think it was eight million, plain truth magazines a month. Eight million a month or an issue, better said. Eight million an issue. And of course back in those days every year we would do just what we did today. We would have membership drives, you know, we would say, well do you still want the magazine? Virtually every year four million would drop off, but we'd add another four million. And, you know, back in the days when I was going to Ambassador College in Pasadena, back in the early 70s, it was interesting as I would talk with some of my classmates who worked in letter answering of the various names of people who were wanting to get the magazine. I'm not going to name those names here, but there were movie stars, there were people of political influence, names that if I were to mention you'd say, oh wow, they used to get the plain truth? Yeah, they used to get the plain truth magazine. The bottom line is there's an awful lot of people who, those who are still living, who have some idea about the truth of God. The Philadelphia Church has been an emissary to push out the truth of God to the whole world, just as Barkley was saying here in his write-up. A door had been opened and we walked through that door. Let's take a look at 2 Corinthians chapter 2.

And you were a part of that, brethren. I mean, there are times, you know, when we look at ourselves and we feel, you know, again, Mr. Bratton said it was talking about how he came to a point in life where he realized, you know, just being physical, slash, it was not going to get the job done. I think we all came to that point. We realized we needed, we'd gone as far as we can go. We had hit a wall and we needed a, we needed some, we need a boost. We're gonna get over that wall. We needed a boost and that boost will only come through God's Holy Spirit. And so we, we, you know, God worked with us and we're so very thankful that God did work with us. But here we see in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 12, where these doors that were open were open to us, whether you came into the church and through your family or on your own, the door was open to you. The door could have been your, your mom and dad or grandparents, or like in my case where just as a kid got open a door for me to understand the truth and I came in by myself. Second for the end, chapter 2 and verse 12. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, a door was open to me by the Lord to preach Christ's gospel. This is what we walk through that door with Christ's gospel.

You know, it's, it's not the gospel of just about the personage of Jesus Christ. If I'm not going to go there, but if you want to in your notes, you write down Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and 15 in there talking about when Jesus Christ began his ministry, talking about the gospel of the kingdom of God. That's Christ's gospel. So the door was open to us that no one can shut to as a body of believers to proclaim this word. Much like Philadelphia was proclaiming Greek culture to their world, we are proclaiming God's culture to the world. But it goes beyond that. Let's go over to Acts chapter 14.

Acts chapter 14 and verse 27.

Acts 14, 27.

Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported that all God had done with them that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. That's Acts 14, 27. Open the door of faith.

So not only is a door open collectively to us as a body of believers, a door has been opened to each one of us individually. So we as individuals grow and develop and mature. And as God opens that door, as Christ opens that door, no one is going to shut it because of the great love God has for us.

Moving on in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 8.

I know your works, except for you an open door and no one can shut up. For you have a little strength, you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Three items there we want to take a look at. You have a little strength. You know, back in our heyday, back when we had roughly 150,000 people worldwide, which was a small town, you know, for us it was big news. You know, 150,000 people, that's everybody. That's moms, dads, kids, everybody. Baptized or no. 150,000 people. We weren't a church that had billions of dollars at our disposal. You know, we had a budget of 220 million dollars back in the day. Now we've got a budget of about 20 million dollars. So not only have we had a little strength back then, we've got a very little strength now.

But we remember the story of Gideon. We don't want to look at things the way mankind looks at things. We want to look at things through God's eyes. We've got a little strength. Let's take a look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 again.

Or 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. I don't think we were there before.

2nd Corinthians chapter 12. Let's understand something about a little strength.

2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7.

Unless thou should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, all that Paul had done, all that he had written, he was quite famous in the church community, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I be exalted above measure. So God says we need to make sure you don't grow too great in your own eyes. And there's nothing like having some physical issues to bring you down to earth.

Anybody in this room have some physical issues? I've had my share. I think Mr. Fay once said, you know, getting old is not for sissies. And truer words were never spoken.

And yet here Paul was given this thorn in the flesh. Now notice verse 8. Concerning this thing, I pleaded, you know, he put his heart into it. I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. You have a little strength.

My strength is made perfect in weakness.

You know, there's a reason why God, what was it, 32,000 people, troops that were had in that one army, Gideon's army, brought it down to 300. He didn't want anybody to think that it was by the numbers of troops that victory would come. It was by the power of God. They had a little strength, Gideon did. And the same thing is true here for Paul. The same thing is true for you and I. We rely upon the grace of God. Verse, middle verse nine. Therefore, most glad he had rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. When we're weak, when we're have a little strength, we know we can't do it ourselves.

We know we've got to rely upon the God of all power.

El, El, one of God's names. Many times that's combined with other titles, El Shaddai, but the word El, the name El, is used 250 times in the Old Testament. It's one of God's names, God the strong, God the mighty, that the power of Christ of El may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distress us for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, when I have a little strength, then I am strong. Then I'm strong. So it gives us a frame of reference, our elder brother. And it says here, you have a little strength. You've kept my word. A second thing here, you've kept my word. Let's go to Matthew 7.

Matthew 7.

Verse 21. All read lettering in my Bible. Matthew 7, 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. He who does. He who keeps my word. He who does my word.

Blessed are the doers, not the hearers only. We have that over and over. We see that in the book of James and other places. Who kept my word. And lastly, it says there in Revelation 3.8, and is not denied my name. Let's go forward in Matthew to chapter 10.

Matthew 10, verses 32 and 33.

Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father, who was in heaven. But whoever denies me before him, before men, him I will also deny before my Father, who was in heaven. Verse 40. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of water, a cold water in the name of a disciple, surely I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. So we have not denied knowing the Father. We have not denied knowing Jesus Christ. We've not denied this way of life. Even when back in 1995 and other times people say, well surely you don't want to live that way of life. Surely God has given us freedom now. Yeah, I remember the freedom that they thought they had. Boy, God has blessed me so much. I can afford things I could never afford before. Yeah, well they weren't tithing. You know, you buy a lot of stuff with first and second tithe that you're stealing. But, you know, that's another discussion for another time. Okay, moving on. Revelation chapter 3 and verse 9. Indeed, I'll make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not but do lie. Indeed, I'll make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. Now, I've already gone through this idea of the synagogue of Satan once or twice in the past. I'm not going to go through that again. In your notes, you may want to write down Romans chapter 2 verses 28 and 29.

Talking about the difference between those who are physical Jews and those who are spiritual Jews, that, you know, the one who is one inwardly and circumcision is of the heart. That's what a real Jew is before God. But I would like you to turn to a prophecy over in Isaiah. I've gone through this before, but I want to touch base with this again. Isaiah chapter 60.

Isaiah chapter 60, the time frame of this chapter is the time of the resurrection. The time frame is what had happened just prior to the resurrection when Christ returns at a second coming.

And let's take a look at Isaiah chapter 60 starting here in verse 1.

Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Now, this is an Old Testament prophecy about the second resurrection, about the Second Coming of Christ. It's a prophecy about our resurrection as the saints of God.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth. Again, the time frame, as you know, we go through the Feast of Trumpets and so forth. So just prior to Christ's Second Coming, we've got this time of darkness covering the earth. In deep darkness, the people still living through Satan's age. But the Lord will arise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

So, brethren, this is a description of you being resurrected to glory.

The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Now, with that in mind, we drop down to verse 14. Also, the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and those who despised you shall fall, prostrate at the soles of your feet, and they shall call you the city of the Lord, Zion, the Holy One of Israel. Those people who persecuted the end-time Christians are going to understand who we now are, what we now are, and they are going to come and acknowledge who we are. And we see that in Revelation 3 and verse 9. Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.

I have loved you.

Revelation 3.10, moving forward. Because you have kept my command to persevere, you know the word.

Hupomony. Apparently, this congregation has gone through that word a number of times, a number of sermons. Because you have kept my command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of trial, which will compound the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth.

Hupomony. To endure.

It's translated that way in the English Standard Version, God's word, and the Young's Literal Translation. We persevere. We endure. We're relentless in our enduring. We're constant in keeping the word of God. This is because we are persevering.

And that's one of the keys to this church. You know, we talked about an idea, a theme for each church. This is the theme for Philadelphia. To the faithful church that perseveres.

Through all the shakeups in life, through all the earthquakes, this church is a faithful church that perseveres. This is a church that understands its calling, and regardless of the shakeups in life, regardless as to the earthquakes that happen, we're going to do what God has called us to do.

That's the idea here.

But there's also something interesting here in verse 10. Because you have 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. I will keep you from the hour of trial. The hour of trial, we've always understood as being the Great Tribulation. Matthew 24, 21. Great Tribulation. And it says here, I will keep you. And people have thought, well, that means that there's this place of safety, and all of us will go to this place of safety, and not one here of anybody's head will be hurt. And of course, that doesn't square with all the Scriptures. In your notes, you might want to write down Revelation 6, verses 9 through 11, that talks about an end-time martyrdom of saints.

Revelation 6, verses 9 through 11. An end-time martyrdom of saints.

So how do we understand this word here? I will keep you from the hour of trial. The theological dictionary of the New Testament gives this word keep two distinct meanings. One is to protect. God will protect some at the end of the age. Who and how, that's up to God. One of the meanings is to protect. The other meaning for this word keep is to preserve.

Preserve. The idea is He will keep us as we go through the trial.

Much like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, God didn't keep them from being thrown into the fiery furnace. But when Nebuchadnezzar looked in, he saw a fourth that was walking with them.

And that fourth was keeping them, was helping them go through that trial.

Last phrase in Revelation 3.10, talking about those who dwell on the earth. If you make a study of this, I'm not going to take the time, but you go through a strong, or if you've got a computer, search on that phrase, what you're going to see is a phrase that is overwhelmingly used of the people of the world. The Christians are the strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

We are not those who dwell on the earth. We're the strangers and pilgrims. We look for a better kingdom that is coming. But those who dwell on the earth, those are the physical people who have not known enough, because their minds have not been opened, to accept God the Father and Jesus Christ. And so this is going to come upon those who dwell on the earth. Revelation 3.11, Behold, I'm coming quickly. I'm coming quickly. Again, a couple of ideas here. With great speed, 2,000 years have come and gone since this was written. In your mind or mine, we might not think of 2,000 years being very fast.

We might think of it as being more sloth, more the speed of a sloth.

But the other idea here, with God, time is virtually nothing. A blink of an eye is nothing to God. Many, many years pass in that period of time. But it's also a time when things start, there's no stopping it. Once things start, there's no stopping it.

So I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have. Last week we heard a sermon. Good sermon by Mr. Bradford about holding fast. I don't need to go through much more of that. That no one take your crown. No one take that wreath of the victor from you. And as I've said in the past, and you know, many times you can understand something by looking at a number of translations. No one take your crown. Let me read you the American Standard Version, just that phrase. Let no one rob you of your prize. Let no one rob you. The Darby's translation. Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize. The King James. Let no one beguile you of your reward. Now again, there was a time when people tried to do just that to us. They tried to defraud us. They tried to be guile us. They tried to rob us. They tried to bait and switch and all sorts of things to get us to go a different way. Revelation 3, 12. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in a temple of my God. A pillar. In ancient times, pillars were often used in dedication to important people. Many times their names or their faces will be inscribed on those pillars. Christ uses that analogy to let us know that there's going to be a time when we will be a pillar in the temple, the most sacred place, a main structure in the most sacred place.

So many times when you have an earthquake, everything falls down, but many times the pillars will still stand. It says here, and I will write on him the name of my God, the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down of heaven from my God, and write upon him my new name.

What is all this naming stuff? Well, remember the history of the church in Philadelphia? They had a lot of names. In verse 12, it says, my new name. He's going to write the name of my God, the name of my God. When you put your name on something, what does that mean?

You know, in the front of my Bible here, I've got a name, Randy Delosandro. Now, there's at least one other person in this room who's got a Bible just like this one. Really nice Bible. He gave it to me. Nice present. Now, if those two Bibles are laying side by side and someone opens this front cover, I say, oh, this one's Randy's. A name shows that it belongs to somebody. This Bible belongs to Randy. When God writes his name on us, we belong to God. We're God's. We're God's kids.

The name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, we belong to the kingdom of God. We belong in the New Jerusalem. We have eternal citizenship in that kingdom. And recognizing the name of that city recognizes the fact that this is eternal citizenship. It's not a part-time thing. We're no longer strangers in pilgrims. We have eternal citizenship in the New Jerusalem.

And lastly, it says, write on him, my new name, Christ's new name. There have been times when I thought about it being a new name for Randy Delosandro, but it says, my new name, Christ's new name.

Perhaps referring to the fullness of God. Perhaps the fullness of God in relation to how each of us has come and overcome in our lives and so forth. And lastly, it says, Revelation 3, 3, 13, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Brethren, a lot of powerful information in this particular letter to the church in Philadelphia. A lot of things for us to think about allow it to percolate in our hearts and minds. Let us allow that to take place. But let's take three takeaways from this letter to Philadelphia. Number one, that a door has been opened to us, the door to the kingdom of God. As we go through life's trials and difficulties, let us never forget the tremendous privilege we have of being God's called out ones and that God has opened to us a tremendous door to the kingdom.

The second thing is we want to walk through that door. We want to walk through that door corporately as a church. We want to do the work of the great God as a church. We want to do the work of the great God as individuals. We want to be holy and true like our elder brother is holy and true. And a third thing that this church was famous for was their perseverance. They're keeping the faith. They're holding on. Let us make sure that we keep the faith, that we hold on, that we persevere no matter what the circumstances. Because in that, God the Father and Jesus Christ are very well pleased.