I hope that, from the conference and these rich times we have had together, you have a longing in your heart, a burden in your heart, for God to have His perfect way in every life.
These children so innocently respond to the Lord and sing the song of response. Sometimes, as we get older, it does not seem that simple. But I suppose really it is, if we have such a heart’s desire.
We want to read a couple of passages tonight. First, from Matthew 3, again the account of John the Baptist from Matthew. Matthew 3, beginning in verse 1.
Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.
Now John himself had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Then went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about the Jordan;
And they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
And then just verse 11, where John speaks:
I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire:
Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His threshing-floor; and He will gather His wheat into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire.
And then I would like for us to go to the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation, chapter 1. Let us read again the apostle John’s testimony of that Lord’s Day morning in the Spirit, when he saw a fresh and glorious vision of his Lord Jesus. Beginning in verse 9, Revelation 1.
I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;
And in the midst of the candlesticks One like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire;
And His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.
And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last,
And the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter;
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven churches.
Let us just pray.
Our Father, we come to this last message meeting together before we sum up everything and gather together tomorrow morning and worship unto the Lamb of God. We ask, Lord, even in this last hour, that You would speak by Your Spirit to the church.
We thank You, Lord, that You have spoken clearly this week. We thank You that You have been touching and convicting us and encouraging us and reviving us. We thank You for the work that is being done. It is deeper than we can even understand.
But we just want to come and ask that You would add something more tonight. Oh, give us hunger to know more of Your will for us. We come and depend upon the Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts, for the Holy Spirit to quicken us to response, for the Holy Spirit to give us understanding of this preparation that we are in.
Lord, we want to commit this evening, our meeting, the hearers, and the speaker into Your hands, and pray that Thy will would be done and Thy kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
We have been talking about a vessel of preparation: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” My responsibility has been, in some way, to talk about that vessel that is being prepared, specifically the church.
So I wanted to come to this point in Revelation where we can see our Lord Jesus, the great High Priest, personally standing in the midst of His church, observing each individual church and looking for that fire that He has placed on the lampstand.
We had our brother Lance share that precious message last night regarding the fire of God. We know that this is God’s wonderful grace to us: that He, as individuals, is looking for those who consecrate themselves as living sacrifices, because His fire falls on all such consecration.
We see as well that the Lord is preparing a corporate vessel, the church. The symbol of that living relationship to the Lord is the lampstand that we see before us, and of which we see our Lord inspecting from church to church.
Without fire, the church is only furniture. If we are the temple of the living God, we can have all kinds of altars, all kinds of tables of showbread, and all kinds of worship furniture. But if that fire is not there, where is the light?
The Lord has placed that fire on the church from the day of Pentecost, and He continues to send down His fire upon the church as we gather, and fires up the lampstand.
But in these days of preparation, when our Lord, as His last word says in the book of Revelation, “I am coming quickly,” as our Lord comes among us, He looks at each of the individual assemblies that are represented here tonight. He looks for that fire.
Is there a fire on the lampstand? Is there that fire of His life? And in us as individuals, is there the fire in the bush, even as Moses had the fire of God in him?
Because this combination we can never separate. We cannot talk about the church having the fire in the lampstand if we, as brothers and sisters, do not have the fire of God upon us. These things go hand in hand.
Our brother last night talked about this fire: the fire of love meeting the fire of life there on the altar, there in the church. How we need this fire. We are so thankful for the message that we received: the indwelling life of God—that fire.
I do not know exactly who came up with the design for the Methodist Church, but, you know, every church has its logo. The Methodist Church logo—and if you go down to where Federal Lane used to be, you will see it, a pretty large logo—is a fire.
That is what the Anglican Church, or the Christians around, thought of John Wesley and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, and these brothers who had the flame of God in them. They were called enthusiasts because this fire burned so bright as they met, preached, and served the Lord.
Well, here we are now at the end, in the last days, and the Lord is coming. How He loves His church. He comes to every assembly. These seven represent every assembly, and He is looking for the fire.
He wants to come back, but the lampstand must be in its place. So we want to look at this matter tonight: the church bears the fire of the testimony. I am going to use it that way tonight—the fire of the testimony.
We all saw that fire initially falling, and our brother Lance took us through the history of the Bible and told us of some of the servants of God upon whom the fire fell. Then he took us to the church and showed us, even down through church history, how the fire was initiated and poured out again from heaven upon an assembly of people consecrated as a living sacrifice unto the Lord. What a wonderful picture this is.
I want to take it from there and talk about the fire of God in the lampstand. That fire is initially first love, zeal, life, and power. You notice that when that fire falls, there are all kinds of enthusiastic manifestations, as when a husband and wife are newly married.
Now, as we heard this morning, when a couple has been married as long as Kenny and Linda, where is the fire? There is fire. But, you know, with time, the fire deepens and expresses itself in different ways. Yet the love is just as strong.
When we look at the fire in the lampstand of the church, and see it down through time and years, we see that fire has a further effect upon the church which prepares it for the Lord’s second coming.
Not only is that fire a fire of love, and not only is that fire representative of life itself, but it has further significance, as we know from the Word of God. If the fire on the lampstand burns brightly, that assembly will come into a measure of truth, because that light is life and that light is truth.
There is a reality that comes from that light shining in the midst. In Paul’s brief definition of the church in 1 Timothy 3, he calls the church the pillar and foundation of truth.
The church that bears the lampstand, that light burning on the church, that walking in the light, produces a reality that is precious to the Lord. We might even say that you can tell there is the lampstand of testimony in the midst of an assembly that is coming into a reality that is setting them free.
There is something wonderful about the reality that the Lord wants to bring His assemblies into. We see it in the church where that light is burning brightly.
Now, you know, when you travel around to a number of assemblies and places around the world, you see different assemblies and churches at all kinds of levels of reality.
Sometimes you find churches that have religion, but not much reality—religious heat, but not the light of truth. You go to such places and there are all kinds of affectations. The minister, especially, has to act differently than a human being. His vocabulary is strange, and the way he purses his lips when he prays is a little strained. People act especially nice, but it is kind of a show.
It is a religious show, and the pastor speaks about victory and tries to convince everybody that he lives on a higher plane. But if you stay there long enough, you start to see the reality: a lot of hypocrisy, a lot of people playing games. You know what I am saying.
Sometimes you visit an assembly and it is not reality that you touch, but naturalness, because it is completely worldly and carnal. Maybe everybody is friendly, but everybody is doing what they want. There is no sense of a flame upon them bringing out some reality to their lives. They are just themselves.
You meet a group like that, and you do not know quite what to say. They are friendly enough. Of course, those who do not like them have left. They are natural enough; they all say what they want to say. Nobody seems to submit to anybody. It is just kind of a free-for-all.
But the Lord is looking for reality in His church.
I think of the picture of the assembly in the wilderness. The assembly in the wilderness in the book of Acts refers to Israel as they went from station to station through the wilderness.
You know, walking through the wilderness with the saints is a pretty realistic ordeal. There is a lot of dust, a lot of hot days, a lot of rubbing shoulders with the other tribes who have kind of gotten into your walking zone, and a lot of discomfort at times. Real life is real life, and it tests you as you walk along.
But it is interesting to me that that assembly going through the wilderness, to Balak and Balaam, was something that brought fear into the heart. They looked down at this large group moving through their land, and what did they see? Well, they saw human beings.
From their view, from up in the mountains, they looked down and perhaps they could see that there were women and children and some goats on the outskirts. It was just a normal-looking group, except there were some things different.
They were more orderly than you usually see a mob of people going through the wilderness. They were actually lined up and marching in a sort of formation. Then, in the middle of the formation, there was a bunch of men dressed specially and carrying some equipment—what they realized must be the holy relics of this group.
Then they would hear a trumpet sound and everybody stopped. Suddenly, tents were pitched. Then they would hear a trumpet again; tents folded up, and they were on their way.
But, of course, the thing that terrified the king was the fire of God that was over this group. There was a reality there, but it was a reality that expressed the fact that God was with them.
How the Lord is longing for assemblies that people can visit and say, “The Lord is here,” because there is that fire, that reality of His presence. There is something ordered; there is something being led by an unseen Head.
A second thing produced by that fire in the lampstand is an increasing holiness. That fire in the lampstand is an exposing fire, a purifying fire, and a separating fire. Fire is always a symbol of holiness.
How the Lord loves holiness. Jesus, the glorified, glorious High Priest, looking there among those seven churches, is looking for the fire in the lampstand. Surely He is looking for holiness among His people.
John the Baptist said that when Jesus comes, He would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Immediately he goes on to say, “And the winnowing fork is in His hand.” You know, that fire that the Holy Spirit places upon our lives is a sanctifying fire.
The assembly that has the testimony of Jesus burning in its midst is an assembly that is going through a process of sanctifying separation, purifying, and glory.
You remember how Paul was so jealous, for he had betrothed the Corinthians to the Bridegroom as a pure virgin. When the church has that flame of the life of Jesus in her midst, the church is also jealous for her Lord.
Oh, for holy jealousy—that we would actually be jealous that the Lord be hallowed and glorified in our lives, in our midst, in our assembling together. If that flame can abide there in the assembly, there will be the effect of holiness among the people. Praise God.
It is not exactly like there are ten steps to holiness. But if we abide in His light and life, that indwelling life produces holiness in His people. Oh, how beautiful that holiness must be.
We know from so many portions of the Bible how much God loves holiness. It is beautiful to God. He talks about beautiful women, the beauty of holiness, the beauty of worship. God loves beauty—holiness.
How our Lord is longing for His bride to be holy. It is like that picture of Rebekah coming down toward Isaac. There she is, up on that camel, adorned with all kinds of jewelry. Of course, it all came from Abraham and Isaac.
The servant had prepared her, telling her stories of how rich and wonderful his master was. She was absolutely sold by the time she had made the journey. She was wearing garments and riding there; when she saw Isaac, you remember, she veiled herself. But you could not hide the fire in her eyes.
Oh, how the Lord is looking for fire in His bride’s eye, and for her to be clothed with the holiness that He has provided for us by the Holy Spirit. Oh, what a wonderful wedding day that will be.
That testimony, that fire, produces holiness in the assembly. A third thing produced by the abiding fire in the lampstand, and the testimony of Jesus in our midst, is a life of prayer and communion.
We sang that wonderful song by Margaret Barber, “Keep the Incense Burning.” In Leviticus, it tells us that not only were they to set up the lampstand and put the oil in the lampstand, but for the lampstand it said particularly, “It is to be a perpetual light,” day and night in the holy place—that light never going out.
That prayer, that communion between God and man, provided by Jesus—the light—a prayer life, speaks of that wonderful and deep communion that the church comes into under the light that never goes out.
We learn to commune with our Lord. We learn to pray to our Lord. Our prayers become deeper as that light goes deeper into our soul. It is still that light of life, that fire of love, but now it is being brought deeper into our lives with groanings, yearning, travailing, and longings too deep to express in the weakness of our vocabulary. But the Lord understands that light.
The church is to bear that light. Oh, how wonderful—the assembly, the vessel, that has learned this preciousness of the fire of love expressed in prayer as a perpetual flame.
Tonight I want to share and show us in the Scriptures a prepared vessel ready for the Lord’s return, having these qualities that we have just mentioned. Where is that prepared vessel?
If you heard my first message on John the Baptist, maybe you think that this prepared vessel looks like this kind of tough prophet. We are looking for some tough guy to stand up, wearing clothes that are way out of the period of dress, who speaks with a loud voice, who is a vegetarian, who is a loner. We say, “Ah, there is the vessel that is ready to bring the Lord back.”
But no, that is not what I want to point out tonight. John the Baptist—what a beautiful picture he was of somebody who pointed away from himself to the Lord.
Or, if you heard my second message, you might think this prepared vessel is some kind of soldier: a veteran, old, rugged soldier, wounds on him, limping around, cannot hold him down—kind of like old Caleb, you know? “Well, I am old, but I saw that there is a beautiful mountain, and there are giants. Please let me go, please.”
We say, “Ah, yes, there is a vessel ready for the Lord’s return. You have to be a rugged soldier—never give up, never complain.” Well, that is the picture I portrayed, did I not? Got everybody upset? The Chinese sisters will not talk to me.
I got myself in a lot of trouble just the other morning. But no, that is not the vessel that I want to show tonight.
It is in Revelation 3: the church of Philadelphia. Not very extraordinary. Some of you may be let down a bit. Well, let us read and see.
Our Lord Jesus is speaking, looking at the fire in the lampstand, in Revelation 3:7.
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth and none shall shut, and that shutteth and none openeth:
I know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut), that thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name.
Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of them that say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
I come quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.
He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out thence no more: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and Mine own new name.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Well now, here is the church of Philadelphia—no great church. We do not know of any great preachers from the church. We do not know of any great deeds that they have done. We do not know much about their history, other than that they were devastated by an earthquake in the first century A.D. There is just not very much known.
Yet listen to what Jesus says to this church. First of all, He does not tell them to repent. He does not rebuke them, which makes them, along with the church of Smyrna, the two churches that did not receive rebuke.
Notice also that He said they had basically already done that which was necessary to obtain a crown. Just hold on. You notice that in verse 11: “I am coming quickly; hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.”
They obviously have something precious—basically, the guarantee of a crown if they hold on. The Lord speaks to them a special word. He says, “I am coming quickly.”
He said He was coming quickly to the church of Sardis, but to them it was a warning: “If you do not wake up, I am going to come like a thief.” But to these people He says, “I am coming quickly. Hold on. I am coming quickly.” What a wonderful encouragement to this group.
Now, the question I want to ask and answer, because I am in that position, I can do that, is this: Was there the fire of God in the lampstand in Philadelphia?
There is no mention specifically made of their lampstand’s condition. We know, of course, that this church in Philadelphia was a real church in time, and nobody there was perfect. This church was not perfect.
Sometimes we come to such a level of expectation that we think the Lord is demanding perfection. But He is demanding absoluteness.
Does Philadelphia have this fire in their lampstand? Well, the answer to me is yes. Why do I say that?
If you notice, in each of the seven churches, as Jesus speaks to them, He introduces Himself in relationship to the condition of the church. To some He comes with flaming eyes; to others He comes with a two-edged sword.
But notice His introduction of Himself here in this Scripture. Here is what He says: “He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David.” Let us stop right there.
What this means is that the church knows a holy God because they have entered into a measure of holiness. They know Him who is true because they have entered into a measure of reality.
It is a sad thing to say today, but to many assemblies, even those that call themselves churches, the Lord cannot come and say, “He who is holy is speaking to you.”
There is a profanity and a commonness to so much of the church today that the Lord cannot come in this revelation. They do not understand a holy God. Evidently, the brothers and sisters in Philadelphia understood who a holy God is because they respected a holy God, and He could come to them with this identity.
What a wonderful thought. Let us look at that just a moment: “He who is holy.” The sanctifying work, that fire of His holiness, is known in the church.
Oh, that God would be able to recover holiness in His people again: true uniqueness, separateness, cleanness, holy jealousy. That flame must have been burning in the midst of Philadelphia for Him to be able to say, “He who is holy is speaking to you.”
Secondly, He says there in verse 7, “He who is true.” Which means, to some degree, there has been progress in the church of Philadelphia in terms of reality. The truth is setting them free. They are entering into a reality as to who they are in Christ. They are fellowshipping in the light, and it is bringing them into reality.
I am just reminded—I do not know, I guess it is off subject a little bit. I remember when my three kids were just early teenagers, and there was a group of people meeting in Flushing, a little church, not very many people, fifteen or so.
They had one dear older sister who was quite the vision of holiness. She was single. She had her hair braided up like this, and she was pretty unusual. My boys had not really seen many people like this before.
My wife invited her out for dinner one night. We were living out on Long Island, and she came out. My boys sat down, and there she was while we had our prayer and began to eat.
This sister was so real that she disarmed all three of my boys, which is not easy to do. She started asking them about things, from sports to interests. She was a math teacher herself, and they brought up math, and she started charging into things. They were just blown away.
Here was a sister who looked different, you know, like maybe John the Baptist’s mother or something. God bless her; she was a fine woman. But she had a reality in her. You did not touch religiousness, though she was a holy woman. She knew a reality.
One thing you know about teenagers: they might not be able to know quite what is going on, but they can taste reality if they touch it. They immediately can tell, “This person is for real.” I will never forget that time.
So He can come to the church in Philadelphia—“He who is true”—because there is something of reality in them that He can fellowship with about the matter of truth.
I think right here we see the key. To me, there is a key to the church of Philadelphia, and you know what the key is? They know the reality of this that Jesus says to them. This is not belittling, and it is not magnifying. He says, “You have little strength.”
And they know it. They do not take it as a rebuke, although they wish they had more strength. But they have a proper estimate of who they are.
If, in that light of God, we ever come to this humbling reality of the fact that we have little strength, there is a reaction in us that is spiritual. What is it? To lay hold of the Lord to be our strength.
Now listen. Let us read verse 8 in its context:
I know thy works (behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut), that thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name.
Because they have little strength, you know what they are spending their strength on? Keeping His word. They have kept His word.
That means more than that they knew His word and had Bible studies. It means they were obeying His word. It not only means they were obeying some special emphasis or part of His word. They were holding and obeying the whole counsel of God because they had little strength. So they had to depend on the Lord.
Secondly, right along with it: “And didst not deny My name.” Today we may think that is a small matter, but our Lord Jesus takes that oh so seriously. Despite the fact that they had little strength, they had not denied His name.
I would like to picture this for us tonight, because in the historical-prophetic view of these seven churches, I think you all probably know that the church in Philadelphia prophetically speaks of the church historically that came about in what the Lord recovered among the brethren.
Some of you may not even know who they are. In Great Britain in the 1820s, God began to open up the Word of God to some brothers and sisters in a few different locations, and they found one another. This was something from the Lord.
He poured out the fire of illumination upon the Word of God, and these brothers and sisters—some of station and importance, and some just plain, ordinary, common daily workers—the Lord began to reveal the truth of His Word and recovered some precious truth that you and I know today and take for granted.
But it was learned and discovered in those times. It was the brethren who brought before all of us this whole matter of the second coming of Christ, which had become so muddled in the church. There were various understandings, but many people had no idea what it was really all about.
The brethren began to take the New Testament and Old Testament seriously. They found a connection with God’s purpose with Israel and its connection with the church. They began to see things that had not been seen for centuries. God was recovering the truth of His Word.
They began to see the simplicity of body life and began to gather together in simple ways. They saw that the Bible spoke about making disciples out in the world, and they began to go out in faith mission, which means they felt called to go and went without any support, umbrella, association, or anything like that.
It was said that in the 1830s and 1840s, if you happened into one of their reading meetings—where people came from the town, some workers, some doctors, lawyers, and all—they came to a place and ate. They had tea, whatever that means—afternoon tea, some kind of mystery that English do.
Afterwards, they would open the Bible. Sometimes somebody would kind of lead, but many times you could palpably sense the Holy Spirit opening the Scriptures before the people.
There are numbers of testimonies of vicars and ministers in churches of the Anglican confession who walked into those meetings, those reading meetings where they read the Bible and discussed it, and walked out and left their ministry. They had seen something.
There was a profound fire of the Word of God over these people. They could not get enough of it. When you sat in one of these meetings, it was just as likely that a revelation from God would come from a cobbler as from a doctor.
The Word of God—they kept it, held it, cherished it, and studied it.
But right along with that, knowing their little strength, they also could not deny His name. Now, to us, we are perhaps not even sure what that means. But at least for the brethren, it was very clear to them that it meant they could no longer fellowship in any kind of assembly or meeting where there was any other name on the meeting place.
Because the church belonged to the Lord Jesus, any denomination—which just means naming a group—they felt was not pleasing to the Lord.
So they said, “Okay, we will meet at the Broad Street Chapel.” That is all they ever called their places: Broad Street Chapel, or this chapel, or those kinds of terms. You would ask, “What group are you?” They would say, “Well, we are just brothers and sisters gathering together.”
Other people gave them the name Brethren. They called themselves brethren. They said, “We are just Christians.” But that was the whole point: they welcomed all Christians to meet with them. Anybody who was saved could break bread together.
You and I say, “Oh, ha, ha, yeah, we all know that.” In 1820, nobody broke bread if they were just Christians. You had to go to the board and become a member, go through the class, and this and that and the other thing. Then you still could not take communion in a neighboring church, only your church.
But suddenly they said, “No, the Lord’s Table is for anybody.” Then came the scandal of scandals: any brother could break the bread and hand it out. What a scandal.
All of us know that somebody has to come down from the apostle Peter himself in the apostolic succession and be an ordained minister in order to break that bread and pass the cup. It was a scandal throughout Great Britain.
In their desire to be one body of Christ, a number of them who were already ordained ministers gave up their ordinations and just became brothers. J. N. Darby himself was an Anglican minister. He left all of that, gave it up, gave up his career, gave up his retirement program and blah, blah, blah—and, you know, they always give you a certain charge, something—gave it up and became an itinerant minister, just a brother going from place to place.
Because it was just brother and sister.
One more aspect was just as dramatic and, I suppose, scandalous. Lords and barons and ladies met with carpenters and housemaids, broke bread together, ate together, prayed together, and worshipped together. It was unknown.
Many of those Bible readings were actually the way people came in from other groups. If they had a place, say Broad Street Chapel, and they had a meeting there, nobody from another denominational group would go there. They were not allowed to.
No Baptist could go to the Broad Street Chapel. So Lady So-and-So, who had a beautiful estate out in the country just outside of town, would open up her drawing room on Wednesday nights and have a tea for anybody. People would come from miles around for tea.
You know, there is no easier way to bribe people than just to say, “Here is some food.” Christians of all denominations and confessions came and had this tea together, because what is the harm in that? Then a little Bible study—what could be the harm?
And the Lord touched them. These brothers and sisters kept the Word of God and did not deny His name. They paid a great price. They were considered heretics. They were spoken against in pulpits across the land.
But after years they became respected because they changed the map of the lay Christians’ understanding of the Bible. What a tremendous moment, and what a picture of this little church of Philadelphia.
We do not know how big it was. It is not necessarily that it was small or big. But with all their heart, they determined they were going to keep the Word of God.
Is that not precious? Just think of an assembly that says, “We are going to keep the Word of God. Oh, Lord, tell us what You want us to do. If You will give us a command, we will do it by Your enabling. But we want to keep the whole Word of God.”
“And Lord, we do not want to deny Your name. Oh God, help us. Prevent us if we do something that is not pleasing, that does not represent the Lord Jesus in a respectable way. We do not want anything to do with that.”
This group bore the testimony of Jesus.
There is another thing mentioned here. It says, “He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one will open, says this: I know your deeds, and I have put before you an open door which no one can shut.”
There is a lot of speculation about this whole thing—about holding the key of David and the doors, as to what the doors are. Most interpretations say that the open door is the open door of service: to go out and witness, opportunities to start new churches. This is the interpretation, but I think it is a lot more than that.
It had to do with serving the Lord, because the Lord says, “I know your works. Behold, I have opened before you a door.” Some people say, because of the historical view of the church of Philadelphia and the brethren, that this was the moment in church history where the door was opened for worldwide missions, and that this door has remained open and will remain open until the Lord Jesus comes back. These are interesting interpretations.
But I think there is something greater here, something more wonderful—something that even this assembly of people, who knew little strength, had discovered.
In their little strength, they had discovered the One who holds the key in prayer.
To me, this is a statement of the fact that the Lord Himself has said, “I hold the key of David.” This is a Messianic matter—the key of David, the Messiah. This is a kingdom matter.
The Lord is saying, “I have opened the kingdom door. There is an open heaven over you. If you bind, if you loose, I will bind, I will loose. You will do things that have kingdom significance.”
Brothers and sisters, again, it sounds like we have to keep going back to a negative thing, but we have to realize that the church today is busier than ever. There are things going on. I have visited some churches, and they give you the schedule of what is going on this week. It is like a booklet.
There are so many projects, so many missions, so many buses, so many opportunities, so many trips, and all this kind of stuff going on. What are they doing in the kingdom?
Are they doing anything that we would say is counting and preparing the way for the King to return?
This little church—you could just imagine—they are dealing with a synagogue of Satan. That sounds like they are overwhelmingly more powerful than this little assembly. But somehow this synagogue of Satan, of liars, however you want to interpret what that is, has not been able to quench the fire of the testimony in Philadelphia.
They have been able to go on and be faithful despite this persecution. They have been able to pray, and the Lord has done tremendous things.
It is absolutely amazing. I hope one day we have a nice videotape session when we get together with the Lord and see the great things that have happened on this earth by two or three praying through the open heaven and the kingdom shifting.
There are governments changed by prayer. There are physical and weather-related things changed by prayer. But there has to be an open heaven, and some who are weak enough that they have discovered the key of David and they ply everything through Him.
One of the most tremendous miraculous outpourings that could possibly happen today would result if we realized our little strength and started praying kingdom prayers, laying hold of Him who has the key of David.
When He opens the door, nobody shuts; and when He shuts, nobody opens. We are completely at His will. Right?
Do we see Philadelphia saying, “Open the door”? No. They say, “Lord, open the door.” If the Lord says no, they say, “Amen, Lord, keep the door shut.”
We want to kick down doors if they do not open. Some doors the Lord has left open, and we want to try to shut them. We build up all kinds of barriers, and it will not do any good.
Here is this little-strength church that has learned this lesson about who holds the key of David—about kingdom access, kingdom praying, and kingdom largeness.
There may be a group that wins three hundred people to Jesus Christ, and they make decisions and raise a hand. But I tell you what: if the church of Philadelphia finds three people and makes disciples out of them, that is kingdom work. That is something that will last. That is something that prepares the bride.
We would be wrong if we assessed everything by the size of things rather than by the significance.
If I remember correctly, one time Mother Teresa was asked by some news person, “How can you do such great works?” She just laughed in her way and said, “I do not do any great works. I do little works with a lot of love.”
To me, that speaks of the right kind of humility that realizes without Him we are nothing, and yet we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
When I hear that some brothers and sisters have been praying that the Lord would close down that pornographic shop across the street from the assembly, and then the Lord does it, is that not amazing?
But it is having that sense of what the Lord wants—He who rules, what He is declaring—and joining with Him in this kingdom process. Would that not make all the difference in our prayer meetings?
Those lists that we have—by the time we are through the list, sometimes we are all exhausted just from hearing all the problems. We have nothing left except that we have to begin to pray for the whole list and try not to forget anything. Oh my goodness. Then you realize you are of little memory.
But to gather together and see the Lord working in the midst and doing amazing things—this is the church of Philadelphia.
Here they are, and the Lord promises those who hold fast and overcome. I will just give two of the promises that He says.
In my own words, He says, “I am going to make you little-strength people pillars in the temple of My God.” Because that is what I am looking for: those who are looking for Me, those who are of little strength.
Perhaps—I do not know, you know how these things are; I doubt this could really have happened—but cannot you almost imagine the church of Laodicea saying, “Philadelphia? They have no ministry there. They have a little bunch of people. Most of them are just workaday people.”
The Lord says, “Okay, these little-strength people, they are going to be the pillars in the house of My God.”
And also, you sensed your weakness and said, “Lord, please. Lord, we do not want to deny Your name. Oh Lord, everything we do, we want to be pleasing.”
Would you not love to hear a church that does not want anything the Lord does not want? Nothing coming in that is just from the world—some group idea, untested, unprayed, crazy things that go on in the church. It is in and out, and there is no sense of discernment.
But here is a group that must sense with discernment because they are saying, “Lord, please, Lord, we do not want to deny Your name, but we lack wisdom. Lord, please give a sensitivity of spirit if something is coming in that You do not want.”
What does the Lord say to these brothers and sisters who faithfully carry on with this kind of heart not to deny His name? The Lord says, “I am going to paste My name all over you. I am going to paste My Father’s name on you, and My name on you, and the name of the New Jerusalem on you. You are going to carry My name because you have not denied My name when you were tempted and could have done so so easily.”
How wonderful. There is a vessel ready for the Lord’s return, to whom the Lord can say, “I come quickly. Hold on.”
What can we say? The Lord is looking for a vessel to prepare the way for His return. He is looking at His church—every assembly. He sees things; He commends them for things; He rebukes them for things.
The Lord loves the whole church, everyone who is born again. The Lord calls the whole church to prepare for His coming.
As I read Revelation 2 and 3, I do not sense the Lord sharply rebuking His people. I sense the Lord trying to win them, even at the last hour—warning them of what they have lost.
“The fire is about to go out. I am going to remove the lampstand. You are asleep. Why are you holding to the doctrines of this and that instead of holding to Me as your Head?”
The Lord speaks to His whole church. The Lord loves His whole church. But I see in these two chapters a reality: there are only some who are listening, and some who seem to have the heart to pay the price to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.
As our brother Stephen mentioned this morning, the Lord takes that offering of those who are willing to pay the price—that remnant, those who are willing to overcome. May it be that He takes that offering on behalf of the whole.
I have to believe that these overcomers who are faithful are thinking of the Lord, and perhaps even thinking more of others than themselves.
Somebody needs to love the Lord and want to keep that fire there; wants to be conformed to holiness; wants to be conformed to a reality that knows the truth of who they are in Christ; wants to continue to bear that flame with travail for the Lord’s coming back.
Here is an assembly that wants the Lord to come back. But still, He knows that not everybody hears. So He says, “Listen to what the Spirit is saying.” Are you willing?
Of course, we see in the story of John the Baptist also that he was a voice that prepared a people for Jesus when He came. The overcomer has this role in a sense.
Oh, that there might be some people who love the Lord so much and who abide before His flame to such a degree that, when the church begins to wake with a great shake, they will see what the Lord wants and come into it.
There must be on this earth those who bear the testimony of Jesus in these last days. There must be, for the sake of our Lord Jesus, those who are faithful.
I am constrained to believe that some of you are here this week because the Lord wants you to be such a lover, such a fire, that others can see what the Lord wants.
We do not know what is going to come in these last days. We know that those who overcome will be rewarded for their faithfulness. We do not know exactly what will happen to those who have been lazy or sleeping or missed the boat. All we know is that we are warned enough that we should say, “I do not want to be there.”
But will we be faithful? It comes back to this, I guess we might say: Is that flame in your heart? Is it there in your assembly, amid the problems you are having, or has it gone out?
There are a number of people who have known the Lord for a number of years, and I am sure that, being the case, you remember when the flame was burning brightly. Has the flame gone out, or has it gone deeper?
Is the flame smoldering, even though you have created a wreckage out of your life? Yes, there is still a flame.
Is there incense burning on the altar fire?
I think sometimes people who know the flame have gotten so discouraged. As our brother shared this morning so honestly, if you look around at the situation today, it can just be hopeless.
I think some people give in to that. Some people retire from pursuit. But I think that flame is still down inside.
I wonder if the Lord, in these last days, is not by the Holy Spirit trying to fan that flame alive again, for us to be faithful to the end.
Notice what He says even to this church in Philadelphia, which is bearing a testimony and receives no rebuke. He says, “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.”
These are human beings, and they are imperfect, but they are holding fast to the Lord. What will we do in this day?
We have all kinds of ages and groups of people—new Christians here, all kinds of things. Some have been coming to these conferences for many years, and some are just new.
I know that I have been privileged to see the Lord in some wonderful and glorious ways. I am old enough that, when the charismatic outpouring came, I saw it.
Now, I do not know what you think about it, but it was from God. I saw it, I was touched, and I could never be the same, even to this day, because that fire fell on me.
Then I remember that fire burning out of control in my life because, at that time, I knew nothing of church life, order, or holiness. I just knew, “Yea, Jesus.”
Then I happened to come to one of these conferences, where our brother Kong and Lance Lambert quickly killed me. Suddenly I felt the flame constricted, because now, oh, the flame includes holiness? These were all new thoughts to me.
But I am so thankful for the grace of God that allowed me to see, touch, and know in my day the reality of God moving, opening the heavens.
I think probably many of you know that this is my prayer as I get older: that the Lord again would touch this earth yet once more—either to come back, or to rekindle in the hearts of His children the reality of His fire.
There is now a whole generation of people younger than myself who have never seen and never known. They have only heard with the hearing of the ear.
But I wonder how that flame will come, how that outpouring will be seen, how the heavens will be rent. Will it be some huge earthquake, wind, or fire?
Or could it be that the Lord could so touch again those faithful vessels—those Zecharias and Elizabeths who have been around all so long and almost given up hope?
Could it be that by those older ones, by the fire, praying and longing, the Lord would come down and give birth to a John the Baptist? Raise up a generation of those who love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Those who could say, “I have heard the Lord. I have seen the Lord,” and be the voice in these last days.
I do not know what is going to happen. I cannot predict. The Lord is very sovereign in all of this business. But I sure am praying that the Lord would rend the heavens and speak again with such a voice that our hearts would flame again.
Be a fire for Him. Be willing to be all that He wants us to be. You know, you are never too old to be all that He wants you to be.
It is that fire in you that makes you like Moses—that eighty-year-old, at one hundred and twenty, just as young as he was when he was eighty. What happened to those forty years? The flame just kept him. It is amazing.
The testimony, and how the flame in our lives—that fire—can keep us going in these days.
Dear brothers and sisters, keep the incense burning. May the Lord understand, and may the Lord have mercy upon us.
If we know our little strength, and we see what needs to be done, can we pray? Pray those kingdom prayers and see the heavens opened and the Lord do an amazing work in these last days.
Oh, may it be that He could prepare the whole church. But I have to leave that to His magnificent sovereignty. I have to ask the Lord to prepare me. I hope you have that same kind of heart.
“Lord, prepare the way of the Lord through our lives, through our heart. Burn Your life into us: a life of love, a life of power, a life of holiness, a life of reality, a life of prayer.”
May the Lord do that, even as in the church of Philadelphia: a vessel, a corporate vessel, a corporate vessel with the flame. Oh, what a precious treasure that would be.
Lord, we just come to You. We thank You for all the words that we have heard over this week. We know, Lord, much has been rehearsed that we have heard before.
But we come to You and sense the end draws nearer and nearer. We want again to see flame. Oh Lord, there are many flame-outs, but we are not talking about that. We are talking about an assembly under the fire of God.
Oh Lord, would You do that work back home where we live? If we are just a natural bunch of people, oh, bring us by the work of the cross into people who understand our little strength and our need for the Lord.
Oh Lord, if our assemblies are full of religious heat, burn out that heat and give us light and life—reality. Breathe upon us by the Holy Spirit. Breathe upon us, Lord.
Oh Lord, sometimes we are so stifled, sometimes so set in our ways. But Lord, we are so thankful for every shaking that comes along in our life. It makes us realize that You mean business with us.
Oh Lord, do have mercy upon us. Hear our prayers in our little strength, Lord. We do not have the strength to cause something to happen by human flesh. We know that would not last at all.
But Lord, You can touch. You can move. You can raise up. You can find a testimony in an assembly that glorifies Your name.
Oh, may that work be done in these last days. May You find those lights alight all over this nation, and indeed all over this world, in such a way that You have to come back. Your holy bride is ready and waiting.
Lord, I believe the time is nearer than we think, and perhaps You are just waiting for that last flame before You come.
Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.