Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea

Thank you, Mr. Slocum. My wife showed me a picture texted from our niece earlier today that she was trying to get down her road to where she lives, but it was so congested with vehicles from people who had just driven in to help because this street had been damaged. And she said it's just people who have just driven in and don't know anybody. They're just walking house to house, seeing if they can help take out carpets or drywall or furniture or whatever. So she said it was really heartening to see that. Today we're going to continue in our study of revelation.

I did pass out a sheet. It's the one that's in the pink color, so it's different than the bulletin.

This is not a scholarly treatise. This is simply an aid to help understand the sermon today so that you'll be able to focus on the concepts we're going to be looking at.

We did mention last time that the description to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 is cumulative in several ways. To begin with, the description of the speaker or the giver of the information, Jesus Christ, is divided up into seven different smaller subcategories in the introduction to the message to each church. In chapter 1, he is introduced with all of these qualities, but in chapters 2 and 3, each church era has a little piece of it, and you put them all together and you get a complete picture of what Jesus Christ's role today is and what his role concerning dealing with the churches is. Secondly, each church era is faced with challenges and problems, and these are cumulative. They add up together to help us to see the picture of what we are dealing with in the latter eras of the church, because it began with liars, those who said they were apostles, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, those who had control or wanted to have control over the lives of people, tyrants, and we know the church in Europe that started that and began that. That's still here with us. Leaving a person's first love, that still is a pitfall that people have to be aware of. The next era, the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, that is still with us today. We are the synagogue of Satan. Remember that in the Nicolaitans it says, he that is a Jew is one inwardly, not outwardly, one that has the spirit of God and truly is converted. Also dwelling where Satan's throne is, the doctrine of Balaam, which is about allowing sexual immorality and also idolatry that is with us today as much or more than it ever has been. Also the doctrine of Jezebel, a woman who brought in idolatry and tried to, and actually was very successful at it more than just tried to do it, had the people of Israel participate in Baal worship. Today we're going to start in chapter 3. We ended chapter 2 last time, and we want to look at some of the very interesting and very personally applicable lessons from this chapter. We mentioned that the term seven or the number seven is important in the book of Revelation.

Seven times the word keep occurs. Seven times the word patience occurs. There's a seven candle six, or it's the seven spirits in chapters four and chapter five. So we'll run on to the number seven several times as we go through this. But first I want to look at Revelation chapter 3. I think we have time or should have time to get through this today because there are some very important lessons.

We have the speaker, Jesus Christ, who in this case is the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. If you open your Bible to Revelation chapter 3 and verse 1, we'll begin there because this message, the salutation to this era, focuses on the control that Jesus Christ has over the light given to each stage of the church.

He is the one who is the light giver, and he's pictured in the introduction to Sardis as being the one who is standing in the midst of the lights or in the midst of the candles. And we talked about how those are configured and arranged in the first sermon about this book. This phrase is followed with a reprimand that this era has no significant works. The era of Sardis was a very challenging era for the time of God's church. The era of Sardis is one we need to take some lessons from because they lost a great deal of truth. They began to sort of intermix the true religion of God with other beliefs.

They tried to be the pal of the world. They tried to have the world like them, and they tried to fit in with society, all of which caused them to have some spiritual issues and challenges. They did not test those who claimed to be sent by God like the first era did.

They did not undergo martyrdom for the truth like the second and third eras did. They mentioned to them other unacceptable works, but it does mention their faithfulness and perseverance, but only if they hold fast and don't let it completely die. Perhaps the most, I don't know, condemning things said about any church era is here in verse 1 of chapter 3.

I know your works that you have a name and you are alive, but you are dead. Now, they're not physically dead. Otherwise, Jesus Christ's prophecy in Matthew 16, 18, that the gates of the grave would not prevail against his church would not be true, but it is true.

They were physically alive and they had a name, but that name didn't result in the works or the efforts that they should have. God simply says, you were dead. You are accomplishing almost nothing. The beginning of this stage of the church should be dated to about A.D. 1588. That's the year of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The military might of the Catholic Church was destroyed, and they combined with the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, as Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne.

That was the end of the major reprisals of the Catholic Church against those who were trying to keep the Sabbath or God's Holy Days or otherwise worshiping God in the right way. And so the beginning of that church era is pretty easy to date to about 1588. But God says, we watchful and strengthen the things which remain because He says in verse 2, they are ready to die. Very, very serious charge. They're simply ready to die. By this time, the church had lost understanding that it had in earlier centuries.

The primary problem was to make they tried to maintain close association with other churches. At first in England, they developed bonds with the Puritans and the Baptists. Some of their ministers actually spoke in Sunday keeping churches. They had combined activities, they had combined political activities also with those other groups. Due to this interaction, by 1800, most of what remained of the true church in England changed their name to the Seventh-day Baptist, kind of a combination of the Seventh-day, the Church of God, and the Baptist religion.

However, prior to this, in 1664, before that happened, there was an elder sent to Newport, Rhode Island, and he then raised up a church there, which seemed to be kind of the place where some of the real truth continued. And if you've been to Newport, Rhode Island, you've seen the church there, the Seventh-day Baptist or Seventh-day Church of God has become later in Newport, Rhode Island, where Stephen Mumford raised that church up. In fact, it is still there as a building, and you can see the graves of some of those people that God let them or caused them to be able to continue and try to strengthen what they had that remained, but they truly had lost so much.

He says in verse 3, "'Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Hold fast and repent.'" So hold fast what they were to have and then to repent of what they had been doing to water down or to lose the truth.

This era was admonished to repent of maintaining close ties with groups that God simply did not call. Many congregations in North America, as they began to spread across the country, adopted the name Seventh-day Baptists. In the early 1800s, and then finally, they began to accept pagan doctrines, the Trinity, the immortal soul, other things that the Church of God simply does not and has not believed. This reached the culmination in 1846.

The followers of a man named William Miller called themselves Adventists, which means those looking for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Nothing wrong with looking for or hoping for anticipating the second coming of Jesus Christ. But William Miller's group began a close association with one of the few remaining Church of God groups in that area. And he refused, and they, I'm sorry, they refused to change their name to Seventh-day Baptists. Only after dropping the name Seventh-day Adventists in 1860 did the followers of William Miller break their ties with the Church of God, who began then calling itself the Church of God Seventh-day. So that's kind of the origin of the Church of God Seventh-day in a very short form, going back into the 1800s. It kind of grew out of the rejection of the name Adventists, and their final rejection of breaking off from William Miller. Now this group needs to have something changed. Jesus Christ says, repent. And of course, that something that needed to be changed was to have the truth re-injected the basics of the Bible, including God's holy days, which was lost while they kept hold of the Sabbath. Many other basic truths about the destiny of men in the kingdom of God simply fell by the wayside. But God tells them, therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I have come upon you until I am there. You know, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24, 42, watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, if that master of the house had known when the thief was coming, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. You therefore be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect. So we have a warning that we need to listen to also, that we don't allow ourselves to have our doctrine watered down, that we don't ever want God to say to us, you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. We don't want to ever have God say to us, repent, because the things that you have are dwindling away and are about to die. And because you have lost your sense of urgency, I will come upon you as a thief in the night. In verse 4 he says, you have a few names, even in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments. And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Indeed, I believe Mr. Armstrong found that to be true. Some have criticized or ridiculed his identification with the Church of God's seventh day that he came into contact with in the 1920s and early 30s with the name Sardis, but I believe he had a pretty solid biblical understanding for that discernment.

During my early years as a full-time minister in Albany and Salem, Oregon, I had the great privilege of meeting a number of those people who knew Mr. Armstrong. I even got out the autobiography and went through there in kind of in detail, made a history of all the names and places Mr. Armstrong had been and went out and met people like Mike Helms. I remember he had a baby that was healed. Mr. Armstrong prayed for him. He had a field that was flooded, and all of his neighbors lost their crops, and he didn't. I also got to know Mrs. Hinyon, Alice Hinyon, very well. She showed us where Mr. Armstrong was baptized not too far from the Morningstar Grange. I got to know Gladys Tilly, who was able to go into the Scrabble Hill Church where Mr. Armstrong used to preach. I didn't go there for church, per se, but just to see it. So I did a little bit of research, and my opinion after meeting as many of those people as I could and trying to befriend them—in fact, they used to call me when they would have a problem in their church at Marion. They would—sometimes they would call me all upset, wanting me to call Mr. Armstrong and let him know what was going on. Like, he was going to come change something going on. I always thought it was kind of comical, but I really didn't have any pull with Mr. Armstrong. I doubt if he would have known who I was if I would have called and said, hi, guess who I am. But anyway, my perception was that the older people, the ones who were elderly in that church, still had God's Spirit, still had a soft attitude, still were teachable, had lost a great deal of understanding, but they had an attitude that I think God can work with and certainly had some fruits of the Spirit in their life—their love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, meekness, faith. The younger people, not so much. In fact, a great deal, not so much. So there are a few Insardus who have not defiled their garments, and whether or not that pattern held true across the nation—that's not for me to decide or even to experience, I simply don't know. All I know is it's of my own experience with people in the Salem and Albany area back in the early 1980s. It says in verse 5, "...he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments." We know that white garments are a sign of being worthy—a sign of being able to be worthy to be in the resurrection, and will not blot out his name from the book of life. Now, if a name is blotted out from the book, then that leaves a space for somebody else's name to be added. But it also means that person is very likely not ever going to have another chance to be in the book of life.

I want to hold that place here and go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 6.

2 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 14.

Scripture we don't read as often as perhaps we need to, but we ought to, considering the times in which we live. There is always an attraction for some with wanting to be accepted, with wanting to be a part of a large ecumenical movement, with perhaps wanting to join in with other groups in some way or another. Not that we can't always join in with charitable works and that type of thing.

But don't forget that one of Satan's tactics, if you go back and read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, is what Sanbal and Tobiah did. They tried to pretend to be working with Nehemiah, building the walls, and say, oh yeah, we're one of you. Let's work together.

And Nehemiah very wisely said, go pack sand. I want nothing to do with you. And, of course, we all know that the people's motives were different. He goes all the way back to the time of Jacob. Jacob had a daughter named Dinah. Do you remember her story where she went out and kind of got involved in some immoral activity with the sons of Heth? And what did they say? Well, marry our daughters. Well, if we are sons, then marry your daughters. You can marry our daughters. And we'll all be together and live happily ever after. But then the sons of Heth said to themselves, all that they have will become ours. Essentially, it was a plan to steal and destroy Israel, take all that they had. We have to be very, very careful of alliances and of agreements that could potentially spiritually be harmful. In 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14, it says, "...do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers." And down through the years, there have been many creative reasonings around this Scripture.

Just like the average 14-year-old will say, the rules don't apply to me. It'll be different because it's us or because it's me. But people often find out the hard way that the rules always apply. That God's rules aren't different. For what fellowship, and that's a very key word there, has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

What accord has Christ with Belial? What part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God, we are part of the temple of God, with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I'll be their God, they shall be my people. Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. He's talking spiritually with our religious practices and how we worship God. Jesus Christ himself said, I don't pray that you take them out of the world, it's not possible, but that you take them mentally out of the world, that they're not part of society in the outlook and the way they have values in life. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I'll be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and my daughters, says the Lord. So that was the fatal mistake of the Sardis era. They began in their early years to curry favor with other groups who were anti-Catholic, but certainly different in England. They began to have exchanges of ministry and various things going on. We don't have all the details, but we do know quite a bit about what happened to them, and that's what caused them to eventually almost die out and be gone. He says in verse 4, he have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments. So there were those who resisted trying to get together or trying to blend in with other groups. He says, they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

In verse 5, he who overcome shall be clothed in white garments. I will not blot his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

Jesus Christ said, if you confess me before men, I will confess you before my father in heaven. It's in Matthew chapter 10. So these people are about to have their names blotted out. It's interesting. Let's go over to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4 and verse 3. Basically, it says that people have their names written in the book of life when they are converted. If you understand what Paul is saying here in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 3, he says, I urge you also true companion help these women who labored with me in the gospel with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. So he's writing about converted people who are doing God's work and he says their names are written in the book of life. So it isn't hard to figure out that what he's talking about is people who have their names written in the book of life when they receive the Spirit of God. It's easy to put that together with other verses that Paul wrote about that. There's also a warning that all of us have to listen to. It simply mentions in Revelation 3 verse 6, he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to all the churches, not just one era but to every era. And keep in mind the main purpose of the Bible was written for those upon whom the ends of the earth are coming.

And so we have to listen to the message of every one of these warnings to the church, and that's why each one of these problems and challenges they faced are problems and challenges that we are going to face in one form or another. And in fact, I would say, looking back historically, we certainly already have. The next era is the era called Philadelphia. This era is interesting in history because in the Old Testament fulfillment, the fifth era of the Old Testament was, or the sixth era, was the era of the Maccabees. And some of you are familiar with that. That's a interesting time in history when the Maccabean revolted against the Greeks, the Greeks who were there in Jerusalem and were causing them to honestly try to be idolaters. I got a little bit of information here I want to find and read about that. Let me see here. Yeah, here we go. This is from Wikipedia and one of their source. It says, the Maccabean revolt was a Jewish rebellion lasting from 167 to 160 BC, led by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire and the Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. You know, it's interesting, the Sardis era in the Old Testament was the era in captivity, the era where they were the era of Daniel, the era of the return under Esri and Nehemiah. We see a lot of parallels where Esri and Nehemiah constantly were fighting this group in Jerusalem who were about to let things die and they were intermarrying with people in the area there who were idolatry and were of a different religion and certainly the people in the Old Testament Sardis era had similar problems with those in the New Testament Sardis era.

But on the heels of that was the Maccabean revolt, where in first Maccabees, which is an excellent history book, it's not an inspired book of the Bible, but it does mention about Antiochus, the king of Syria, who issued his decrees forbidding religious practices of the Jews. The Jewish priest from a little town north of Jerusalem called Modin sparked the revolt because he had a war he decided to fight. The war was on two fronts. First, fighting against the Greek gods and the Greek worship of Hellenism that Antiochus Epiphanes was trying to enforce upon the area of Jerusalem and Judea. And secondly, was against the Hellenistic Jews, the Jews who were willing to become idolaters and worship the Greek statues and the Greek goddess Helena and all of her other various forms. And so we had to first fight the Jews who were cooperating with the enemy, so to speak, with the false religion, and then also to fight the Greek armies of Antiochus.

Matthias had five sons. Three of them eventually took his place after he died. He died about one year after he began the revolt, but the greatest of his three sons was Judas Maccabee, and he led a army of guerrilla fighters that for several years harassed and won some small battles. They eventually raised a much larger army, and they defeated the Syrians and finally ran them out of town, so to speak, in about 160 BC. And then, of course, they set up what was called the Hasmonean dynasty. But the Hasmonean dynasty only lasted for a while. Eventually, religion in Jerusalem and that area sort of began to collapse and morphed into what became the Old Testament Laodicean era. But in the book of Hebrews, where it talks about great exploits of those who were men of faith in Hebrews 11, several verses there certainly strongly indicate talking about the Maccabees who were in caves and, you know, fought great battles and gained great victories against all odds. So very likely that's what Paul was referring to, but we'll have to see for sure, but it certainly seems to be indications in that way. Okay, back to verse 7 of Revelation 3.

This salutation, just like the five preceding it, is from Jesus Christ, and in this case it's one section or one slice of that complete pie. He says, He is true, He who has the key of David, He who shuts or opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. In this case, the key of David is an interesting statement. It has been talked about. There's been a lot of speculation, a lot of study. I'm sure there's no way to know exactly what is meant. The only other place where the key of David is mentioned in the Bible is Isaiah 22. It says, The key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder, but it's talking about Eliakim, one of the priests, who had the authority to lock or unlock the doors to the temple, thereby limiting access to the house of David. So now, this key of David that Eliakim had is now given to this church era. The word David means beloved or beloved of God. So the key of the beloved, if you want to use the literal translation or lower meaning of David, refers to the authority of Jesus Christ to allow people into His church to call them, to open their mind, to have them become one of His beloved. I know there are other renderings or other understandings of that, but I think for the sense of looking at what the church, what Jesus Christ meant here, the open door meant that He was going to open a door for many people to be called for a much larger church to be established than what had been in prior history. And He's the one that opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens.

He says in verse 8, I know your works. I have set before you an open door that no one can shut.

And He says you have a little strength. But first let's talk about the open door. Let's go to 1st Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 9. The Apostle Paul was very aware of the concept that Almighty God has to open a door, that Jesus Christ has to open the door, otherwise we are simply not going to be able to go through it. 1st Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 9 says, a great and effective door has opened to me and there are many adversaries. So the same is true in the Philadelphia era, that a great and effective door was opened but there were also many adversaries.

In Colossians chapter 4, I think it's something we identify with, because Paul said in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 3, he asked the congregation to pray that God would open a door for him because he faced wanting to preach the gospel but the door had been shut. Sometimes I think we feel the same frustration. We do a great deal to promote the Word of God, to preach. We put a lot of resources and time and yet it just seems like so few respond genuinely. Oftentimes we have faces come to church for a week or two and they're gone to come once. They call me on the phone, call the ministers, all excited, boy, this is what I've been waiting for all my life. I'm so excited about your your magazine and all the truth you teach. And they never show up. They never get a chance to have a second contact with them. You wonder what does an open door in our time mean? I think there are some open doors but they are few and far between. They're not open like they were 30, 40, 50 years ago. But in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 3, Paul said, Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the Word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in chains. I hope we can all make this personal, that we would spend more time and put it on our prayer list, that God would open a door for us in the times in which we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in a time when we don't have the resources of 150, 200,000 people but a much, much smaller amount. But we do have the internet. We do have tools at our disposal to reach the entire world if they were caused to listen and to respond. And so Jesus Christ opens and no one shuts.

If the door opens for us, no man is going to be able to shut it.

And of course, if it is shut, then no man is going to be able to open it.

He says later in verse 8, you have a little strength. It was not going to be millions of people. It was not going to be a huge billionaire group doing this. It was people with a little strength and have kept my word and have not denied my name. So the commendation here is threefold. Number one, they realized they had a little strength of their own. In other words, they were humble. It was a group that had a certain humility, a certain teachability, a certain respect for the ministry, and a certain awe of God, and a faith to wait for God to take care of whatever had to be done. So this church is first mentioned here. The first commendation is that they have a little strength. Or a better translation, they were a humble people.

Number two, they kept God's word. They were obedient to the scriptures. They did not compromise when other religions criticized them. They did not cause them to change because they didn't fit in with the rest of the world. And number three, they did not deny the name of Jesus Christ. What that really means is they allowed Jesus Christ to live through His Holy Spirit in their lives. They have not denied His name. We're public about it, but also allowing the Spirit of God to lead them. Then in verse 9, the subject sort of changes. It's kind of an abrupt change in one sense.

Because after three very strong commendations, positive commendations, he says, indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but they lie. He says, I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. Now, in our experience, I think we can identify with much of what is said. Much of prophecy is very specific. Much of Daniel 11 is as specific as a luncheon that was to take place between a Seleucid king and a Ptolemy prince. So God's word can be very, very specific. Down to the name of Cyrus, 200 years before he was born, and certainly other very, very specific indications.

So in this case, he says something that we can identify with. I think our best conclusion, in my opinion, is accurate. We may have to see. You've got to be careful what I say here after that sermon. I could be accused of being a false prophet. But I rarely prophesy in the name of the Lord. I prophesy in my own name. So prophesy in your own name when you're wrong, then it just means your authority was bad, which is yourself. So I guess we could disqualify it that way.

But God here says something very interesting. Just like the second era, the sixth era, was confronted with servants of the devil who used church government, in this case or a previous case, the Nicolaitans, to attempt to force the true church to accept pagan doctrines, doctrines of a false belief system. And so we have the synagogue of Satan, a false church, who tried to force people to have a different belief system to abandon the truth that God had taught. What's interesting is that the second part says they are Jews and they are not. They claim to be true followers of God, but they are not. They're lying. And then he says, I'll make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you.

Now, since those who are of the synagogue of Satan are going to, at some point in the future, be required to worship at the feet of the true servants of God, it's clear that those who remain faithful to the truth will be spirit when these people do this. This indicates the likelihood that most of them will be in the white throne judgment. That very likely they simply never understood. They didn't have God's spirit. You mentioned in Hebrews 4 and 10 and have the fruits of that spirit in their life. They simply attached to the organization one way or another, got into leadership positions, began teaching falsehood, and someday they will be in a second resurrection and have their chance. But they will repent for what they did, and they will bow before the feet of these in the Philadelphia era. And it says, they will know that I have loved you.

So it will be a very public acknowledgement of the falsehood that was taught.

So we'll see how that works out, but certainly in our experience and what we understand about how small God's church is, how it is called the way or the little flock or the truth, that I think our understanding has some very solid biblical footing.

But then there's also a warning. Because you have kept my command to persevere during this time of the synagogue of Satan, I also will keep you from the hour which shall come upon the whole earth, the hour of trial. Notice this hour of trial tests those who dwell on the earth. It's a trial of the entire earth of all mankind. This is not a church experience necessarily of a great tribulation within the church. It is a experience for all the world. And it does say those who have persevered during that time will be kept from the hour of tribulation on the entire world. Don't forget that Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24, there will be trouble worse than than there has ever been in the history of the world.

There'll be nothing like it ever again. Indeed, if the length of this had not been shortened, then there will be no one who would even survive on the face of the earth.

So we know those things are coming. We can see every day in the news, you know, crazy things going on like the madman in North Korea who keeps shooting off missiles. I can't believe he shot a missile off across Japan and the Japanese didn't shoot it down or didn't send one back. I mean, if there's a missile coming towards Portland, I would hope the United States Navy's out there shooting the thing down and then killing whoever did that. But they didn't. But it can't last. You know, what's it called, the Mexican standoff? Is that why they both stand there with their guns and dancing around? Who's going to draw first? They just can't last.

So anyway, there's going to be a time when the dominoes do fall and that great tribulation prophesied not only by Jesus Christ but by other prophets will come to pass. And during that time, God promises to keep those from the hour of tribulation or trial on the earth who have persevered during this time. Then there are three things. Hold fast. I'm coming quickly.

Hold fast what you have that no one take your crown. Interesting we have here, those who were called during the sixth era, they have humility, they obey God's instructions, they continue to surrender their lives to Christ. It's an interesting idea that no man take your crown because there are going to be some during that time that would lose their crown. And as the parables show very clearly of the wedding supper, there still be seats left because those crowns were deserted or thrown away and they would have to have those go out into the highways and byways and compel or force people to come during a time of tribulation in to fill those seats up. So hold fast what you have that no one take your crown is a very strong warning for all of us. And finally, he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out.

That also is a very interesting visual because God has names for other building parts. The gates of the New Jerusalem have the names of the twelve tribes. You have Asher, Gad, Issachar, Naftali, all the gates of Jerusalem in Revelation chapter 21 and verse 12, all the gates are named.

Now the foundation stones in New Jerusalem also have names.

Who is it? Anybody else know besides Nathan?

Yes. The apostles, yes. All the foundation stones in Jerusalem have the names of the apostles.

And what's the name of the chief cornerstone? That's kind of a given, isn't it?

Now the way a building was built then, in fact, they sort of still are if you watch how larger commercial buildings are built, there's the foundation, the foundation stone. And the next step is to raise the pillars, the big pillars that go up. Now if you look at most modern buildings, the first thing that goes up is the elevator shaft because all the rest of the floors have to be basically, you'll see a foundation out there of some huge building and this big tower going up with big holes in the side, that's the elevator shaft. And then beyond that then they put up all the pillars, but they didn't have elevator shafts back then. So what we find in Greek architecture is the foundation stones are all laid the main cornerstone, from which everything else is measured, and then all the pillars go up. And so he mentions here that those who overcome will become a pillar in the temple of my God. The pillar is used to support all the rest of the building. All the rest of the building are the lentils and the various the roofing and the flooring, all the things that go on, but the pillars take place right after the foundation stones. So the next step after the foundation stones are laid is to raise the pillars so the rest of the building can be erected upon them. And the pillars are put in place at the beginning of the millennium in Jesus Christ's scenario here. That's why the building quickly takes place with these pillars so that the church, the family of God, can be built during the millennium. Let's go over to a couple places where this type of architecture is used by God. Let's go first to Exodus chapter 27.

Exodus chapter 27. When God inspired Moses to build the tabernacle and gave him very specifically how it was to be built, the pillars held up the curtain rods that held the curtains and the lambskins that all became the walls of the tabernacle. One interesting thing about the pillars in the tabernacle of Moses is that they were covered with two different metals. Anyone know what those were right off hand? Make this a pop quiz day about extra points. Okay, it wasn't gold, but it was bronze and silver. Exodus chapter 27 verse 10. It's 20 pillars and their 20 sockets shall be bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be silver. In verse 17, all the pillars around the court shall have bands of silver and their hooks shall be of silver and their sockets of bronze. You know, how many verses in the New Testament admonish us to have our faith trident the fire? We said that we'll be silver and bronze, you know, and gold, trident the fire. These pillars represent in the tabernacle those pillars in the New Jerusalem, which were promised in Revelation 3 we just read, will be those who come out of those eras of the church. Let's go to 2 Chronicles chapter 3. In 2 Chronicles chapter 3, we find there were two main pillars at the entrance to the temple built by Solomon, and they named them. They had two names for these pillars. Now, the indication is that as people walked by, those pillars were... you couldn't avoid them. They were huge. They were as high as 70 feet high. They had very, very large bowls on the top that looked like upturned lilies, and they were filled... those bowls were kept filled with oil that was burning, olive oil that burned 24 hours a day. And according to Josephus, the oil from that temple in Christ time literally lit up the entire city of Jerusalem, so people could always see the oil of the temple burning on the top of those pillars. In 2 Chronicles chapter 3 in verse 15, it says, he made up in the front temple two pillars, 35 cubits high, so about 70 feet.

And the capital that was on the top of each one of them was five cubits, so eight to ten feet high.

He made wreaths of chain work, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of the pillars. So the pillars here begin to support the rest of the temple. He made 100 pomegranates and put them on the wreaths of the chain work. Then he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left, and he called the name of one, Jashin, and the name of the left one, Boaz.

Now to really get into some potential speculation, perhaps throughout all eternity, as the rest of the people of mankind become part of God's family, as they come to the temple, it'll be pointed out to them that these pillars were the ones who made it when Satan the devil ruled the world. They were the ones that endured to the end. They were the ones that held fast to their calling. And perhaps those pillars will be just like Jashin and Boaz. They'll be pointed out as items of awe or of, wow, you know, look what happened here. Look what God did through this. So it could mean this becoming a pillar. This isn't a flippant phrase or a meaningless phrase, but looking at how pillars were decorated and were used and were items of great honor and notoriety in the temple and in the tabernacle, I think tells us something about our calling for all eternity.

He says, I will write on him the name of my God. So the pillars, Jashin and Boaz, had names. The gates have names. The foundation stones has names. The pillar or the foundation stone itself, the cornerstone has a name. So these pillars will also have 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. I think the audience that John wrote to understood the importance of the pillars in the temple of God and that they were named and that they were items of great respect and certainly had a certain amount of, it might just say, awe or importance in that temple building. He says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Again, every era, when a person has an ear, if they've been given the Spirit of learning from God, they should listen to what each message is to these churches. Now we come to the painful part. Everybody put away your tomatoes, lemons. Now we have to do some soul searching because if we understand this correctly, and I believe we have some pretty good reason to do that, we now come to the era in which we have the privilege of obeying God in, but also facing some interesting times and challenges.

To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, some believe the city was simply named after Queen Laodice. Some believe Queen Laodice was named after the city. Who knows? But the Greek word leos means people and dike means simply rule or judgment. So most of the commentary shows that the name of the city meant let the people rule, let the people decide. It may have been some sort of a communicative court or something in the town there. Who knows? But due to the close parallels between the final era of the Old Testament church and the final era of the history of the New Testament church, it's clear that both of these designations are accurate.

It's important that we understand the religion and the era of the Pharisees was the seventh era of the Old Testament. What do we find as you read about the Pharisees and Sadducees and other seas of all kinds in the first century? Well, we find that Jesus Christ told the Pharisees, you are of your father the devil, and his works you will do. We find the Old Testament church divided up into various groups, each having little pet doctrines. The Sadducees said there is no religion, there is no resurrection. Remember the Apostle Paul got in that big fight and he said, well, these guys don't believe in resurrection, those do. I do, and so they all got in this big fight and he quietly walked out of the room, but that was great. We have the Essenes, we have political fighting, we have political efforts to control people. We find in the scriptures that the high priest wasn't really the high priest, was he? Who was the high priest when Jesus Christ was crucified? A guy named Caiaphas. Was he a descendant from Aaron? Anyone know? No. He was a descendant from Herod. He was a political appointee. He was kind of distantly related to Herod. And he had five sons. One of them was Annas. And these men rotated one year at a time into the high priesthood. Where in the world in Exodus did God command Moses, pick anybody you want, and his five sons can rotate year by year into the high priest office? The answer is nowhere.

It's obvious that the priesthood had become corrupt in the first century. The true priests of God were still there. There were still a few. That's why we have the courses of Abijah. That's why we have the father of John the Baptist and his mother, Elizabeth. We still have a lot of people who were very converted. We have some widows who prayed all the time in the church.

We have Jesus Christ saying, you know, here's a disciple in whom is no guile. So there were quite a number of people who had God's spirit, certainly people who sincerely wanted to obey God.

But the structure of the seventh era of Israel was corrupt. It simply fell apart. During the seventh era of the Old Testament, church due primarily to the failure of the priesthood to hold fast to the truth and the integrity of their positions. And if you read the history of the Hasmoneans and their battles between all these various guys back and forth in the 200s and the 100s of B.C. and finally with the Roman occupation of Jerusalem in 64 B.C. under Pompey the Great, we find that this infighting and all of this political intrigue just became just John Hierarchus and there's several others in the Hierarchus clan and you can do all this study about them. And you find out that the world that Jesus Christ was born into wasn't the religion of Moses. It wasn't the religion of Exodus. It was the religion of the Talmud, what became the Talmud, of various sages and teachers and respected people over in Babylon that wrote these things that came back. As the Apostle Paul said, it was the tradition of the fathers became the religion of that time.

Non-Levites assume more and more of the religious power in the church. The Jewish Pharisees usurped positions of religious leadership previously held by those who were of Levi. By this action, the people decided or a group of people judged did things that God would not allow. What has happened in our time in the last 20-25 years? Well, we've seen a loss of respect for the ministry. We've seen a lot of political infighting and intrigue. We've seen people become offended. We've seen false teachers that have usurped the positions of the New Testament ministry. We've got a lot of self-appointed people out there, some claiming to be God's apostles, some claiming to be the one sent, some claiming to be this and that, some claiming to be that prophet. We have all sorts of people claiming to be somebody important. Remember what Gamaliel advised in Sanhedrin? He said, we've got all kinds of people rising up, claiming to be the Messiah.

This man was not. Then it will die just like the rest of them did. But if he's true, then there will be no way you can stop it. So in the time in which we live, we have simply many who ignore the true ministers of God, the faithful ministers of God. Remember what Jesus Christ said in Hebrews 13, I will never leave you and forsake you. What's that about? The next verse, the ministry, said, follow those who have the organizational rule or guide over you. Jesus Christ promised he would never leave us without a true ministry. Not just personally leave us, but leave us without those who would be there. I know when I was in Alaska in 1994, the last day of the year when I resigned from my previous employer, a number of people called me from around the country and said, well, why don't you start your own church? I said, you know, in Hebrews 13, God promised he would never forsake us from having a true ministry. And God will lead me to that, but I'm not going to try to say I'm the one. I don't hear angels calling in the distance and singing my name. So I just told him, look, we're in a troublesome time, things are falling apart, but God is true to his word, and he will not leave us without a ministry. And I said, I'll try to find where I should be during that time, but don't, you know, going out and starting, you know, some sort of another group of whatever blank, blank church of God. At that time, there still were blank church of God's available. Now all names have been taken, and so you have to come up with different names. If I'm being a little bit ludicrous, you understand that. But we are in a time when people judge. They judge their own calendar dates. They judge how they're going to worship God. They judge whether they should dress appropriately in church. They just dress all sorts of ways. They do all sorts of things. That's why he says in verse 15, I know your works that you're neither cold nor hot. It's kind of like in poker. They call it the anti-religion. Never ever played poker, but all you do is anti. You don't ever want to up the ante because you don't really want to get involved or risk your little pot of chips, whatever it is. I've played poker in years, but I've heard the expression used that we have a lot of people today that just want to anti once in a while. They want to say, well, I'm still part of the church because I, you know, I anti once in a while. I might go to a feast or I might go to church once a month or whatever or listen online somewhere.

And I'm being a little bit, perhaps, sarcastic, but a little bit honest, too, because, you know, the anti-religion won't get you in the game. It certainly won't get you into God's kingdom.

Because God says if you're... He knows your works. We're not hiding anything.

Anyone who thinks they're hiding from God simply is wrong. I know your works that you're not cold or hot. I wish you were cold or hot. God wants us to be all in or all out.

So then because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

That's a very serious judgment. Nobody puts vomit back in their mouth. Once it's gone, it's gone. You don't ever want it back. Because you say, I am rich, I have become wealthy, have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

Exactly what Jesus Christ told the Pharisees, that they really didn't know God, that their religion was of the devil and his works they were doing. Yet they thought they had need of nothing. Remember the Pharisee that thanked God that he didn't have all these problems? Everybody else did, that he fasted twice in the week. That's what he's talking about. So these people didn't have humility. They have positions of leadership they thought they claimed to have a mandate from God. They professed to be the only ones that are faithful and true, just like the Pharisees did, but in all cases they were wrong. Oftentimes today, people can't be told what to do. They can't be, we've lost respect overall. I hope we're trying to rebuild it in the ministry, but in the Church of God. Interesting that this group over in Africa that Mr. Decompos goes to, he says their humility is just unbelievable. That they're so appreciative and they're so desirous. The same with the little group in India. He said there is the humility of everybody over there. It's just overwhelming and just a wonderful experience for him to go. I'd like to go over there and visit, but if you do, they want you to come back and come back and come back, and I can't do that. Plus, I don't speak Portuguese, but I'm sure, thankfully, we do have a minister that does speak Portuguese and can take care of those things. So people that they often don't need correction, in fact, they wouldn't be willing to take it if it were given. Rebuke or admonition are far from them. They're always the exception to the rule. Very few today sometimes will even accept a gentle nudge or suggestion that perhaps they could improve in some area of Christian character or of humility. One of my favorite scriptures, and I hope it is yours too, is over in Isaiah 66. I always try to read the last eight or ten chapters of Isaiah right before going to the Feast of Tabernacles. There's so much in here about the Feast and the message and the meaning of the Feast. But the very last and final chapter of Isaiah, chapter 66, after going through all the creating new heavens and new earths and prophecies about the millennium and just some wonderful, wonderful things in the previous three or four chapters about God's loving kindness and God shall call them as holy people that were redeemed of the Lord. These last few chapters of Isaiah are just overwhelming in their beauty about the millennium and how the world will be when Jesus Christ returns. But then he says in chapter 66 and verse 1, Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

Where is the house that you will build for me? So you're doing great things for me? You're doing physical things? You're building buildings? You are just kind of typical of doing physical things like the Pharisees did. Build that big temple for God through Herod and did all these physical things. He said, where is the place of my rest? Where will I actually land with my presence?

All those things my hand is made and all those things exist, God says. Nothing we can do physically is attractive to him. He says, But on this one will I look, on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word. The attitude of humility that was prevalent in the Philadelphia era is what God is still looking for. To understand that people need to be humble before God and that he is the real strength of power, the real strength of anything that is worthwhile. Let's go back also over to Job 42. If there was a message that would apply to the Laodicean era, it would have to be the experience of Job. Because the Laodicean era was like Job in chapter 1 and 2 and 3 and some of the other things that he said. That he felt he was righteous, that he felt he was obeying God. He was doing physically a very good job, but his attitude was not one that God accepted. Job 42, verse 1, Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do everything, but no purpose of yours can be withheld from you.

You ask, Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?

Therefore I have uttered, but I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. And we've all done that. We've all said things thinking we knew what we were talking about. Come to find out later, we didn't. He said, I have uttered things too wonderful for me beyond my comprehension, which I did not know. You know, God is the judge. Oftentimes we want to do God's job for him and make judgments that are flawed. He said, Listen, please let me speak. You said I will question you and you shall answer me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the year, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Jesus Christ in Revelation 3 tells the Laodicean era, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.

Be, says therefore, be zealous, therefore, and repent. And so in the era in which we live, in this message which applies to all of us, I think we all need to look at ourselves and have we become like Pharisees? Have we lost humility? Have we become judgmental? Have we been like Job, superficially thought we knew about God but really hadn't seen clearly what God is doing? We could all improve in all of those areas. He says in verse 17, You say, because I am rich, I become wealthy and have need of nothing. In the Pharisee era, said that in spades, the Laodicean era is repeating those attitudes, as you see the scattering of the various attitudes all across the landscape. He says, You don't really know that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. You think one way of yourself, but it's very different. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire. Fire simply means tribulation, and there may be many in this church area or era that will have to go through tribulation in order to buy gold tried in the fire. This group has not promised protection like the Philadelphia era is. That you may be rich in white garments, that you may be close, so they're not wearing white garments. They look in the mirror, they see white, but God sees brown or black. That the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed and anoint your eyes with eyesave that you may see. So God desires repentance, sincerity, humility, trembling at His word, and understanding that He is our Savior, that we have not done anything ourselves to be qualified to be in the resurrection. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, therefore be zealous and repent. The verse 20 is very encouraging. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He's saying the door is open. The open mind, the calling, is still there. He is not slamming the door on this church era. He's simply saying He's standing at the door and knocks, so He that opened the truth and understands it can open to Him. Jesus Christ does not force His way in, but He invites. And indeed, many people have been invited who have not opened that door.

He makes His presence, His truth known, and waits to be invited in. Some come right in and are celebrating and thrilled to. Others hesitate and eventually fall by the wayside.

When the Tribulation ignites, there won't be enough time. There won't be enough time for the last-minute deathbed repentance, as we used to call it. There will be some who will go through the Tribulation, perhaps, and will buy that gold tried in the fire. We will have to wait and see how that works out. But He says, even during this time in which we live, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into Him and dine with Him and He with me. And that probably refers to the wedding supper, the time together when we are celebrating the resurrection and the rulership of Jesus Christ. Verse 21, this is the last piece of the pie in what is promised to those who follow God. To Him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me in My throne.

The earlier pieces of the pie were not quite in that category. To the Ephesians, He said, I'll let you eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God. Then He said, be faithful in the death and I'll give you a crown of life, in other words, eternal life. Then He said, He overcomes, I'll give of a hidden manna to eat and a new name written on a stone. He also said, if He who keeps My works till the end, I will give Him power over the nations. Later, He who keeps My overcome shall be clothed in white garments and not have His name blotted out, as others were apparently having their name blotted out during that time. To the era of Philadelphia, I'll make Him a pillar in the temple of My God. You shall go no more out and I'll write His name in the name of My God, in the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven. So the pillars will have those names on them, just like the Apostles' gates and the Apostles' foundation stones and the names of Israel on the gates. So this final church era, He simply says, completing that piece of pie, that entire pie, of what is promised to God's people, Him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me on My throne. And we call it back in Matthew, He said, all power in heaven and earth has been given to Me. So it's an incredible throne, and the concept of being promised to sit there with Him is more than we can comprehend. He says, I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. So in this last two messages, we have talked about the things that are. Remember the three points of Revelation 1 and verse 19?

John was to write the things which He has seen, the things which are, and the things which shall take place after this. So we've written, we've read about the things which John saw, and in these two sermons, we've read about the things which are these seven churches and these messages to them.

Next time, we will read about, begin reading about the things which are to shortly take place.

But today, let's not forget those important words that are laced throughout these two chapters.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.