Let's open our Bibles now to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation 3, we'll read verses 1-13. Our text will be verses 7-13. Revelation 3, verses 1-13. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars. I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I've not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And now what follows is our text for tonight. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true. He that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it, for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Our text, beloved, in verses 7 through 13, records for us the letter that Christ sent to the church that was located in the city of Philadelphia. And out of the seven letters that were sent to the seven churches in Asia Minor, Philadelphia is one of only two letters The other one being the letter to Sardis in chapter 2, one of only two letters which were completely positive. No weakness is mentioned concerning this church. No rebukes are given. They are not condemned or admonished or called to repent for a sinful practice or a sinful direction that they had taken. The letter is very positive. That's not because they were a perfect church. The church on earth is never perfect. No church ever will be. And those are delusional who think that they will be able to accomplish and even to establish and maintain a perfect church on this earth. What the letter indicates, on account of the fact that there are no rebukes and no weaknesses mentioned and no admonitions given, is this, that there were no serious errors and sins that threatened the existence of the church in Philadelphia. By God's grace, she was a faithful congregation. And her greatest strength, as that comes out in this letter, was that she faithfully carried out the church's calling to witness. A calling that is given to every church of Christ. A calling that is given to us, too. The calling of the Word of God in Matthew 28, 19, go ye out into all the world and preach the gospel to all nations. A calling that is given to every believer in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, be ready to give an answer to those who ask you a reason of the hope that is in you. The calling of the church to be a mission and a witnessing people of God. So we consider this letter, the Church of Philadelphia under the theme, the church that faithfully witnessed. We notice two things concerning this church, her faithful witnessing and the Lord's encouragement. Behind the faithful witnessing of this church in Philadelphia is what we read concerning her in verse 8, the second part of the verse, namely this, thou hast kept my word. and has not denied my name." Philadelphia was a church that was faithful to the Word of God. She kept the Word of God and she did not deny the name of Christ. Those two things, keeping the Word of God and not denying the name of Christ, are really one and the same. Because Christ is the content of the Word of God, and the name of Christ is found on every page of Scripture. And when a church faithfully keeps, that is, holds to, the Word of God, then she confesses and does not deny the name of Jesus Christ. That's what a faithful church does by the grace of God. She is faithful to the Word, she keeps and defends the Word of God, and by doing that already she is confessing the name of Christ. Now there's always pressure on the church to do otherwise, that is true. And that pressure was faced by the church in Philadelphia too, as you read of that in verse 9. were of the synagogue of Satan that said they were Jews and are not and lied. And they were the ones that tried to prevent the church in Philadelphia from speaking the truth of the word of God and from maintaining the truth of God's word. They were Jews. As Jews, they claimed to be the church. They claimed to be the true church. As Jews, they rejected Jesus the Christ, rejected him as the Messiah. They denied that he was the Messiah. They claimed, as Jews, to be the true people of God. They claimed to be upholding the scriptures, but in reality, they denied it, and they denied the Lord Jesus Christ, and they were the ones who put pressure on the church and on the saints in the church in Philadelphia not to confess the name of Christ, and not to keep the word of Christ. When Philadelphia faced that, the church there did not give in, and nor may we ever give in. The church that is faithful confesses, this is the word of Christ, this is the word of God, this is the word of truth that God has given to us, and this is the word of truth that we love. And to depart from this Word, to depart from the Word of God, to depart from Scripture, even a little, even a little is most serious, because as a church and as anyone departs from the Word of God, they are denying, they are rejecting, they are abandoning the name of Christ, the Son of God Himself. Philadelphia as a faithful church continued to believe and to confess the truth, to preach and defend the word and the name of Christ. Even if the rest of the world, that is, the rest of the church world did otherwise, they were determined to remain faithful. God had worked mightily in them. give them that resolve and to give them that strength to be faithful to the Word and thus to the name of Christ. And it was that faithfulness to the Word of God that stood behind the fact that the church is one that was faithful in witnessing. church used that word of God in her witness. That's indicated by the fact that they did not deny Christ. If they did not deny Christ, that meant that they were confessing Him. It's indicated also by the fact that in verse 8 Christ speaks to them through of their being given an open door. That has to do with witnessing. That has to do with missions, as we'll consider in more detail shortly. The congregation did not keep the marvelous truth of the gospel to themselves, but they proclaimed the truth of the Word of God to others. Because when someone who has, by the grace of God, personally come to know Christ and come to know, through the work of the Spirit in him, how precious and how marvelous and how comforting the gospel is, then they speak of it to others. If a person experiences the sovereign grace of God in his heart and in his or her life, and if one experiences the rich comfort of the gospel for himself personally, then he cannot help but tell others of it, his friends, his neighbors, his family. and those he rubs shoulders with. And we must realize, beloved, we have something to tell others. We have the gospel of the sovereign grace of God in Christ, the gospel concerning God's absolute sovereignty in all things. We have a truth that not many others have. and not many others believe. We have something to speak in our witness to others. And that's what the church and the saints in Philadelphia did. They spread the gospel. They spoke of Jesus Christ as the only hope for anyone. They called others to believe in him. And they gave that witness, especially to those mentioned in verse 9, the Jews that opposed that. They were not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. The fact that they were first of all faithful to the Word of God, and then that they gave witness to others shows that their witness was made without compromise. Many today who cry out for a softening of the sharp words of Scripture, a softening of the truth. Take away, take out the sharp edges. Don't mention man's total depravity. Defend that man has a free will. Don't speak of God's hatred of sin and even his hatred of sinners. Don't mention God's sovereign eternal predestination, his eternal election and reprobation. Those things will be offensive to others. Speak of the love of God. Love, love, love. Only speak of that. And so they proclaim a shallow gospel that condemns nothing and offends no one. Because it is a gospel that they speak, which is no gospel, no good news, but a gospel they speak that tolerates everything, including sin. A message that anyone and everyone can agree with. And they hope thereby to gain many converts. A faithful mission church and mission-minded church and a faithful people of God in their witnessing to others do that work without compromise. They're not ashamed of the gospel of Christ as it is. It doesn't need to be changed, it doesn't need to be altered, it doesn't need to be softened, they speak to others at every opportunity, they speak all the truth of God. That was true of the church in Philadelphia. And what is striking about it is this, what is mentioned in verse 8. Though hast a little strength, that too is instructive to us concerning witnessing and missions." This church had a little strength. That's not a criticism. That wasn't a weakness on the part of the church. Some interpret it that way, she had only a little spiritual strength. That's not what Christ is saying here. Christ is saying concerning this church that she had only a little earthly or physical strength. The congregation in the church in Philadelphia was small. They were poor. They had little strength compared to others in the city. They were weak in comparison to the ungodly in the city. They were not numerically strong. They were just a small congregation of the people of God. There were not many members in the church. It was just a handful of families that constituted the congregation most likely. And their financial resources were also minimal. The members were not the wealthy and the influential in society and in the world. By human standards, therefore, they were too small. and too limited to accomplish anything at all. That's almost always true of the Church of Christ. That's almost always normal for the Church of Christ. Rarely is the church large and wealthy, strong and powerful in this world. Rarely is the church of Christ a force to be reckoned with in this world. Rarely is the church of Christ in this earth a force that makes the unbelievers tremble before the church and that makes rulers feel threatened by the church. As 1 Corinthians 1 points out, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen Yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Christ usually keeps his church small, and from an earthly point of view, weak, and that for good reason. so that the church does not become boastful, and so that the church relies always and only upon God and his Christ, and so that God is glorified and not man. The church in Philadelphia, in spite of her being small, having only a little strength, nevertheless was faithful in witnessing. Christ commends the Church. Commends them because they loved His truth and they maintained His truth. And commends them because the truth of Christ was the content of the witness and was the content of their witness without compromise and without change of that Word of Christ. And they had a zeal for the cause of the gospel and for the spread of the Word of God. They were busy in the work of the extension of Christ's kingdom. And God was glorified through that. God was glorified because it was clear that God was at work through that, using weak means for the spread of the gospel. and for the gathering in of the church. It's a reminder to us, beloved, that a church does not need to have what many churches think they need in order to do mission work. Most churches think they need millions of dollars, and they need huge and powerful missions, And they need well-planned evangelism strategies. And they need hundreds involved in missionary teams that go forth. And they need an expensive and well-oiled machine even before they start. in their mission work, even before they start. And it's not that all those things are wrong, but the gospel that most churches preach today, who have that kind of system in place and that kind of well-oiled ecclesiastical machinery prepared before they proceed with their mission work, the gospel that they preach most often is one in which salvation depends upon man. And if that's the word that they proclaim to others, then that's how they operate as well. They operate from the standpoint that their work depends on them, and depends on their well-oiled ecclesiastical machinery, otherwise there's no hope of that work being accomplished. So they trust in men and not in God. And what usually follows is the Word of God that is proclaimed as compromise. The Word has to be made attractive, the Word has to be made palatable to the hearers. The Word has to be made that way, they think, so that it will be more effective and the fruits will be more positive. And the fruit, the positive fruit that they get, will at least somewhat match the amount of time and money and energy and resources that they've put into it. It's all focused on man, and it forgets the fundamental truth of the sovereignty of God. and of Christ in the extension of his kingdom. The Lord Jesus Christ does not need all of that. And if he so pleases, he doesn't need any of it, any of it. And that's why he often keeps the church small, to show us this, Of yourselves, you are weak. And I, Christ, can accomplish my work without all of your organizations and your programs and your methods and your money. I don't need mighty, noble, wise men necessarily. I can just as easily use weak. and small men, and weak and small churches. I think we can say, beloved, that that has in our history as churches been true, too. Compared to others, to many others, we're very small. And even as a congregation that has been involved in mission work for many, many years, just a small congregation. The Lord is pleased to use that which is small and weak so that it's obvious he is at work and he receives the praise and not we. So it doesn't matter if we're small and it doesn't matter if our efforts as churches Whether that's domestic mission, or foreign mission work, or evangelism committees, or the personal witness that each of us gives to others, doesn't matter if that seems to be weak. Certainly we must do our best, and certainly we must use the resources God has given us well in the spread of the gospel to others. We don't sit back and do nothing because we do have the calling as God's people, as those who have received the blessings of the gospel of Christ, as those who by faith experience the wonders of God's sovereign grace. We must speak of it to others, but not trusting in ourselves. Not trusting in our skill, in our efforts, or in our signs, but trusting in Christ. He will gather his church. He will gather his people to himself in this area, where he has put us as a church, and where he gives us opportunity to witness to others. And he will gather his church around the well. He's pleased to use weak means to do that. As regards the Church of Philadelphia, Christ knew that they experienced difficulties in carrying out their witness to others. Those difficulties were there on account of their size, as we already mentioned. They had little strength. Secondly, their work was difficult because there was little positive fruit. Very few converts. The church was still small. Christ said that. Thou hast little strength. They were inclined, therefore, to become discouraged and even tempted to say in the carrying out of this calling to spread the gospel to those around them, we can't do it. We cannot be effective. There's no positive results in this. We may as well give up in witnessing. They experienced those difficulties and temptations. But they especially experienced this difficulty, as described in verse 9, that there were those of the synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews and are not, that is, they're not true Jews, they're not the true people of God, but do lie. They faced the difficulty of the opposition that came from these Jews. These were Jews who hated and who had rejected Jesus as the Christ, Jesus as the Messiah. These were Jews who claimed to be the church, who claimed to be the faithful ones, who claimed to be upholding the word of God, but they were not. because they rejected Christ who was the fulfillment of the scriptures that they were claiming to uphold. Those are the kind of enemies, those who claim to be the church, that are the worst for the church and people of God to have. And Christ, you'll notice, uses very strong language against that. They're really of the synagogue of Satan. And they are liars. And they were that because they hated Christ. And they hated the fact that the church here in Philadelphia confessed the name of Christ and proclaimed Christ to everyone around them and gave a faithful witness to the name of Christ. They hated that. And they tried to stop it. For the church today, too, the fiercest opposition is usually from those who used to be in the church. And they leave. And they often claim to be more faithful just as these Jews in the city of Philadelphia would have. And they often come with the strongest attacks and the most powerful accusations against the church. In light of all that, As that was the kind of opposition that the church in Philadelphia faced, and as that is, in our own experience even recently, the kind of opposition that we face, Christ gives encouragement to His church. And really this letter is filled with encouragement. He gives encouragement when He reminds the church of His love for them, at the end of I have loved thee." He reminds them there of Himself. He reminds them there of the cross. He reminds them there of His coming to earth to lay down His life for them. He reminds them of what is at the very center and heart of the gospel, His work in love for them. And then in verse 10, this encouragement, because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. A promise of protection to them, preserving His church, Christ not only gathering but also defending and preserving His church. He promised that. And then again in verse 12, this encouragement that to those that overcome, He would make them pillars in the temple of God and He would give them a new name. He would bring them into the new Jerusalem and they would be forever blessed in heaven. The eternal reward of grace for those But I believe, beloved, that Christ encouraged them especially by what He says in verse 8. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. It was a great encouragement to them, as it ought to be for us, too, in connection with witnessing and mission. It raises the question, of course, what is an open door? Well, that phrase is referred to and appears in various other passages of Scripture, too. Acts 14 verse 27, for example, the apostles return after their first missionary journey, and they gathered the church in Jerusalem to rehearse all that God had done, and in Antioch I mean, and how he had, quote, opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles, opened the door of faith Another passage is 1 Corinthians 16, 8 and 9 where the Apostle Paul says concerning his labor in Ephesus this, But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me. An open door. Well, first thought we usually have with regard to an open door is that it is a door of opportunity. Jesus Christ opens the way for us to spread the gospel in the world and to others round about us. Christ has done that for us in the past, and he is still doing that for his church. He also opens the door for each of us to have opportunity to witness to others, even on a daily basis. Those around us, family, neighbors, friends, those we work with, he gives us many opportunities. And that includes the opportunities that he gives to our mission committees and to various evangelism committees. to speak to others, to bring to others the wondrous gospel of the sovereign grace of God in Christ. You recognize, of course, that as Christ opens those doors for us, we need more ministers and more missionaries. We need more young men to consider the call to the gospel ministry, and parents willing to give their sons to that, and to direct them to that calling. The door of opportunity. But while the text can be understood that way, that there is this door of opportunity that Christ gives to his church and that he would give to the church in Philadelphia, that's not the main idea. The main idea of the open door is a door of fruit, a door that opens up into positive fruit for the church. That's even indicated by the two references earlier to this open door in other passages of Scripture. Acts 14.27 speaks of the door of faith, the door through which Christ will bring some men and women who believe because he will work faith in them and they will come to the church in joy. And even what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16, he says, a great door, and then he added the words, and effectual, the idea being that the door would be a door through which the gospel would be effective. It would bear positive fruit. And that that is the meaning here is confirmed even by Christ's self-description in verse 7 as he begins this letter. There you notice that he speaks of himself as having the key of David. He that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth. Christ has the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And he is the one who brings people into his church, and that's what he is promising the church in Philadelphia. He will open the door and he will bring his people through it into the church. He will give positive fruit upon the work of the church in Philadelphia. He operates the keys of the kingdom. He is the one who operates those keys by His Spirit in the hearts of believers, as is said of Lydia in the book of Acts. The Lord opened her heart by His Spirit, making the word effective and causing the word to be fruitful in those who hear it. And that's really how we are to understand verse 9. In verse 9 we read, Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. And then this part of the verse, Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Christ mentions in verse 9 that He will work mightily by His Spirit in those who oppose the Church the most strongly, these Jews, and He will bring them even into the Church, bring even them to faith and salvation in Christ. Bring into the church the ones that, from the church's perspective, they would have said and would say those are the most unlikely to believe the gospel. They're so strongly opposed to it. Christ would bring them into the church. And what, of course, is made plain here is that Christ is sovereign with regard to the effectiveness of the preaching of the gospel. It's not man's wealth that causes the gospel to be effective. It's not man's ingenuity. It's not man's skill. It's not his well-worked-out programs in the spread of the Word of God. It's not because of we who speak and who give witness to others and our power and ability to persuade others, our profound messages to them, our great arguments in defense of the Word of God and in explaining the truth, but it is Christ, by His Spirit. that causes the word to be effective. Christ gathers his church, not man. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Zechariah 4, verse 6. That's the promise of Christ to us, too, as we faithfully witness to others and as we as churches proclaim the gospel. It's often our experience, as it was for Philadelphia, that there seems to be little fruit, as in little positive fruit. Our efforts in witnessing sometimes seem to be pointless. No growth in numbers, not much success in all the work and effort that an evangelism committee puts into the spread of the word in this community. Or in the personal witnessing that you might do. But Christ promises that there will be fruit. Sometimes that fruit is negative, but negative fruit is still fruit. The rejection of the truth also needs to happen before the end comes. The cup of iniquity must be filled, and Christ will make clear, through the negative fruit of the spread of the gospel, He will make clear who are his sheep and who are the goats. But he does promise also and especially positive fruit, including this, that the most unlikely, the ones that we would think least possible to be Interested to be converted, to come to faith in Christ, just as it was for Philadelphia, are the ones that he often brings into his church. Unexpectedly, those who are most outspoken against us and what we believe and confess Christ will bring them to faith, to the Church. Unexpectedly, some who were born within the Church and who leave and who live an ungodly life now, and for whom to us there seems to be no hope anymore, Christ will work in them. That could very well be. We're very often inclined to give up on those kinds of people, but we may be surprised. God will work in them. That's part of the encouragement and the message of this letter to the church in Philadelphia. Our calling then as a church is to be faithful. and thankfulness for the gospel of Christ that has been entrusted to us, in which we believe, in which we have been given faith to believe and to experience in our lives, be faithful as church and as believers in our witnessing and in our missions. Not leaving it simply to others to do, saying, well, we'll leave that to the mission committees, we'll leave that to the evangelism committees. Not thinking to ourselves, well, there's really no need for us to witness to others. They know what we believe already. And not presuming that no one is interested in the truth that we would speak to them. And not concluding no one will ever come to hear the gospel as it is preached in our congregation. but realizing we have something to tell others. We have something that not many others believe and that not many others have concerning the marvelous gospel of the sovereign grace of God in Christ. And in that labor, we are encouraged by Christ. He knows who are his, and He will save them, and the lack of positive fruit as we observe it, or even the minimal fruit as it seems to us, is not reason to stop witnessing and stop doing the work of missions. We might not see the positive fruit in our lifetime, but this we know, God's Word will never return to Him but it will accomplish the purpose that He has in the sending forth of that Word. Christ will gather His Church. And when the gospel of His kingdom has been preached in all the world for a witness to all the nations in the world, then the end will come. The gospel must go forth with a view to the return of Christ. May it do so, and may Christ come quickly. Amen. Our God and Father in heaven, we thank Thee for the privilege we have to be instruments in Thy hands for the spread of the gospel. wisdom and understanding of thy word, so that we faithfully speak of it to others and not ashamed of it. Be pleased to encourage us with fruit upon our labors. But may we also know that our faithfulness in speaking and spreading the word does not depend upon positive fruit. The fruit is thy work, and thou wilt gather thy church Lord, save all those ordained unto life eternal. And we pray that that work may continue, that it may be accomplished soon and quickly, and then the end may come. Bless us through this word by thy spirit and grace. In Jesus' name, amen.