Revelation 3

Revelation 3:1-6

THE CHURCH AT SARDIS Revelation 3:1-6THE city of Sardis was the capitol of Lydia, the residence city of King Croesus. It was situated on the Pactolus river, a stream famed for its golden sands. How far those sands contributed to its enormous wealth, we do not know. Doubtless they co-operated with the city’s commercial activities to make the ancient Sardis the center of splendor and luxury it became. Although almost 2500 years have passed since Croesus sat upon his throne in this city, and rich men have come and gone by the thousands, still the name of this ancient king is a very synonym of immeasurable wealth. It is stated on what seems to be good authority that when Cyrus 548 B. C. conquered Croesus and took possession of his capitol city, he found there riches to the amount of six hundred million dollars. While to the modern mind that sum does not seem so great, for that ancient time it was a matchless fortune. What wonder that a church located in such a city should be tempted by the worldliness sweeping around it; and, while holding fast to apostolic teaching should, nevertheless, become infected with the spirit of the city, and grieve, and lose the Spirit of God. It is a vast deal easier for a church located in a slum center, located “where Satan’s seat is,” to retain its purity and spiritual power, than it is for one situated in the midst of material prosperity, cultured worldliness, and social gayieties, to retain its spiritual life and keep itself unspotted from that world in which it lives and moves and has its being. Some people imagine that missions and weak churches are the only ones that have serious battles to fight, and dangerous enemies to overcome. But, a glance at the leading cities of America, and a question with reference to the spiritual condition of their leading neighborhood churches shows that with them the struggle against worldliness has been severe; and, in an overwhelming majority of cases, they have succumbed and are today Sardian in character. While it is true that this Church at Sardis was more clearly typical of the time marked by Luthers Reformation on the one side, and the beginning of modern missions on the other (a time comparatively free from false doctrines and criminal conduct yet characterized by spiritual lethargy), still there are enough points of this ancient Church common to the present-day Christianity to make telling application of every sentence in the text. Four suggestions of this Epistle are worthy our serious consideration— DEAD MEN MAY BE CHURCH MEMBERS“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”.Profession is no proof of life. There is not an intelligent man in the land but is competent to appear before the church and make such a profession as will effect his immediate reception to membership. But when he has done so it is not yet determined whether he is dead or alive. Ananias and Sapphira succeeded in satisfying the Apostles themselves, so good was their profession of faith; and yet, when they became members of the Church at Jerusalem they attached to it souls “dead in trespasses and sins”. The man who is without Christ has, in the Spirit’s judgment, nothing better than waste paper in a church certificate, and even though the church of which he is a member is a good one, apostolic in teaching and practice, still his membership therein does not make him alive, for “he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”.Years ago, I went into the museum at Washington, D. C. There I saw birds and beasts in great numbers. They stood upright every one! The poise of each was perfect!

The eyes, wide-open and glistening with apparent intelligence; and yet they were only the semblance of living creatures. There was not a spark of life in any one of them; all their fair pretentions to the contrary notwithstanding, they were stuffed skins of the dead! And so, unless we possess more than the appearance of religion; unless we do something more than, with propriety, keep our places in the Church of God, we will convert its membership into a museum filled with those who have a name to live but are dead. And, as one said, “A profession of religion will no more keep a man from perishing than calling a ship ‘The Safeguard, ’ or ‘The Good-speed’ will keep it from going down. As many go to Heaven with the fear of hell in their hearts, so many go to hell with the Name of Christ in their mouths.” It was to most respectable church men that Jesus said, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:7-8).Christ utterly condemns the hypocritical professor. This text sounds like a soft echo of His previous denunciations of them that had a name to live, but were dead. Go back to the 23rd chapter of Matthew and see what He has to say to such: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in”.Dead men are very likely to block the door of the Church of God! Again, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation”.Charles Spurgeon visited a library in England, and the librarian showed him a statue of Byron. From his standpoint the face was that of a giant in intellect. As you looked upon the face the brow seemed the natural home of thought, every feature suggested magnanimous purposes. But leading him to the other side of the statue he showed him the face from a new standpoint, and it was the face of a man who could plan and execute the most devilish deeds. The artist had purposely put into this marble the dual nature of the man. Ah, it is this double-dealing, this saintly smile on the one side combined with satanic schemes on the other, upon the part of people who have confessed Christ, that brings His Church into the deepest disrepute. No wonder Christ said to such, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess”.“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.“Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity”.The great need of the Church at the present time is honest men—members who will not stoop to base projects, who will not speak falsehoods, who give thirty-six inches for a yard, a hundred cents for a dollar, whose word is better than a bond, and whose work will bear the inspection of Him whose eyes are “like unto a flame of fire”. The great deficiency of the church of the present day is the dead whose names are enrolled in its manual. THE WORKS OF THE DEAD ARE UTTERLY “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God”.The old version is “perfect”—“filled up”, or “completed”. The Scripture suggests that activity may characterize the inanimate. After having told them that they were “dead”, He speaks of their “works”.Charles Spurgeon says, “Have you ever read ‘The Ancient Mariner?’ I dare say you thought it one of the strangest imaginations ever put together, especially that part where the old mariner represents the corpses of dead men rising up to man the ship; dead men pulling the rope; dead men at the oars; dead men steering; dead men spreading the sails! I thought what a strange idea, and yet I have lived to see that. I have gone into churches where there was a dead man in the pulpit, a dead man reading the notices, a dead man singing, a dead man taking a collection, and the pews were filled with the same.” The author of “Grace and Glory” says, “It is a startling thing to see how the symptoms of life and death cross each other, and reappear in their opposites. Activities, which seem to give the most evident token of a living faith, may be but the ferment of a decaying faith. It is the instinct of a dying zeal to exhibit unwonted motion and stir even as a drowning man struggles more violently than he who is safe upon the shore. So I am sorry to believe that we have to be on our guard against an unsanctified activity as well as a sanctified idleness. It is not, of course, that we are in danger of too much effort, but that there may be too little life inspiring it. There are services in God’s Church which may be impelled by the same force that drives a factory or directs a warehouse. God save us from belting on our worldly wisdom or fleshly energy to the Church of Christ to move its activities, instead of depending upon the living spirit within the wheels. There is such a thing as “dead works”. Christ shed His Blood to purge our consciences from “dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14).Sometimes these dead works are splendid in their proportion, attractive in their appointments, and fascinating in their results, but they are the works of the flesh. That men do them in the Name of Christ in nowise changes their character. The minister who preaches that he may win popular applause and fill his purse, while caring little what becomes of the flock, is performing dead works; the worldlian would do the same. Church singers, who employ their voices in the service of God’s house, solely for the silver and gold that results, work; but their works are dead. The theaters are filled with people who do the same.

The pleasant people who get together annually and plan a charity ball in the Name of Christ, that they may have an evening of giddy gayety, are very active; but the works are those of the flesh, and are as foreign to the mind of the Spirit as darkness is foreign to daylight, for “she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth”.Dr. Scudder of the Congregational denomination in America and Rev.

Stewart Headlam, of the Episcopalian, in London, both made themselves famous by their works. Mr. Scudder, joining with Mr. Stoddard, rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, turned dancing masters to teach their young people how to trip the “light fantastic;” while Mr. Headlam, not to be outdone by any American, undertook to elevate the ballet-girls by teaching them ball-room dancing as an improvement upon that in which they engage on the stage. Works! Works!

Works! In the Name of Christ and by church people, and yet they are the works of the flesh, and Jesus Christ writes over them a fitting superscription in one word, “dead” ISuch works disregard the great opportunities.“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”.Constantly God is giving to those engaged in the small business of serving the flesh the greatest conceivable opportunities of serving the Spirit in imperishable works. Oh, to think of the energy that goes into schemes, that when they are perfected and are past, have left all their participants upon a lower level than they previously occupied, when, had that same energy been invested for Jesus Christ, it might have resulted in the salvation of souls, in the strengthening of the weak, in the rejoicing of the sorrowful, in the enrichment of the poor, and the establishment of the discouraged. God forbid that I should say one word in discouragement of any work that is worth while, but when I see a church turning the greater share of its energies into mere amusements, which are as profitless as pleasant, I can but wonder at the disregard of her God-given opportunities, and I want to remind myself that these opportunities are passing, and unless utilized now, they are gone forever. Do you remember the Roman legend of the Sibyl who came to the palace of Tarquin the Second, offering for sale, at a high price, nine volumes? The offer was declined. Immediately she burned three of them and offered the remaining six for the original price. This second offer being refused she consigned three volumes more to the flames and asked the old price for the three remaining. Excited by her conduct, Tarquin bought the books and found they were the priceless Sibylline Verses; but six volumes were gone—and lost forever. The legend has its illustration for this text. The opportunities that are offered us today are fast passing never to be repeated, and for those that remain we must pay a higher price. “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain. * * Hold fast, and repent”.THE FEW ARE NEVER “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”.God always searches out such. Long ago the Psalmist wrote, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the Lord”.God notes their stainless garments—“which have not defiled their garments”. It is hard to tell what attribute of character is most attractive to a good man. But, to God, holiness is the most excellent of all human attainments. He calls upon men to be holy even as He is holy; and He distinctly declares that without holiness “no man shall see the Lord”, and holiness is not what a man professes to be, not what one’s fellows suppose him to be, but is the word translated into action. Lycurgus would allow none of his laws to be written out. He would have the principles of government become a part of the education of his people, and he required his teachers to so imprint these laws upon the minds of the young that they should never forget them. The man who would be holy must not keep God’s will on the book shelf, but must learn it by heart, and strive to realize it in every act. With such God shares His life.“They shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy”.The figure is that of the groom—the husband— offering his hand to the bride—the wife—that they might walk the whole way of life together. If the humble Esther’s heart was made happy when the great, but godless, king gave her his hand, and shared with her his crown, what should be the happiness of that man or woman to whom the infinite God offers His hand, purposing to lift them to His level, and take them into His life, to talk with Him, enjoy His love, receive His counsels, and live in His salvation. It was a privilege indeed that Enoch had, in that he walked with God. And yet, the experience of that ancient worthy is proffered to every man and woman of the present day, who, having been washed in the Blood of the Lamb, keep their garments undefiled. THE FINALLY ARE GREATLY FAVORED “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”.Their fortune is threefold. “He that overcometh, the same shall he clothed in white raiment”—the symbol of stainless character—what a reward. It is natural to associate with this an imperishable name and so God does saying, “I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life”. What has been the ambition of men so much as an imperishable name? To live in history—how men have striven for that. Here God marks the path that leads there. And the humblest may walk in it.

And to a stainless character and an imperishable name he adds a regal presentation—“I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels”.Every now and then some noted American, visiting abroad, is presented by some vassal of England’s court to England’s King and Queen, and it is a proud day for him. American newspapers publish it from sea to sea, and when he returns to his native land, he never tires of telling about this honor. But, here is an honor infinitely greater than any king of earth can bestow, namely, a presentation to the Father and the angels by an infinite Son. And every one who will, may enjoy that distinction, for Christ said, “Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8).The spiritually dead could get a share in this fortune if they would. “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent”.The veriest hypocrite repenting will be raised up to life. The deadest of the dead are called upon of God to come forth. You remember the word that broke the sleep that had bound Lazarus four days, also filled him with an energy that made his response to Christ’s call possible. A friend of mine was present in the South when funeral services were being conducted for a man who had been regarded dead for two days. To the amazement of the company the man moved and raised himself upright. They lifted him out of the coffin and in a few days he was in comparative health again, going about the world and his work. You remember Ezekiel’s vision of the valley which was full of bones. There were very many in the open valley and lo they were very dry, but the Lord God said unto these bones, “Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: “And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord”. and Ezekiel says, “So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army”. Yes, the dead may have part in that victory for God’s breath is upon men today, and whosoever will may have his soul revived. Oh, for the stainless character; oh, for the imperishable name; oh, for the regal presentation! Can we not, every one this morning, join with Beddome in saying, “O Lord, if in the Book of Life My worthless name shall stand, In fairest characters inscribed By Thine unerring hand, “Then I to Thee in sweetest strains, Will grateful anthems raise; But life’s too short, my powers too weak, To utter half Thy praise. “Had I ten thousand thousand tongues, Not one should silent be; Had I ten thousand thousand hearts, I’d give them all to Thee.”

Revelation 3:7-13

THE CHURCH OF Revelation 3:7-13 is a city situated about seventy-five miles east of Smyrna, some fifteen miles southeast of Sardis; a mountainous and volcanic region, a region often disturbed also by earthquakes. And, yet, notwithstanding the fact that it was so unfortunately situated, and in spite of all the calamities which, in the process of time, have befallen the town, it remains today, as God declared it would, and is inhabited by about ten thousand people, mostly Turks. Gibbon, the unbelieving historian, speaking of the conquest of these seven cities, by the Turks from 1312-1392, makes a wonderful admission touching the fulfilment of God’s Word. He says, “In the loss of Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick of the Revelation; the desolation is complete and the Temple of Dianna, or the Church of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveler. The circus and three stately theaters of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes; Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the god of Mohammet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the Mosques of Thyatira and Pergamos, and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of the Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy or courage. * * Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect—a column in the scene of ruins.” Tradition declares that this column, belonging as it does to a building now used as a mosque, is the very house in which the Church of Philadelphia worshiped at the time when our Epistle was written to it and read in it. That is just what “He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David”, promised. Truly “Prophecy is the mold of history.” When God speaks of the things that shall come to pass, His words are more accurate than will be those of the historian whose pen makes record of the occurrences. It is supposed by those students of the Word who are en rapport with prophecy that the Philadelphian era is the one in which we now live, an era in which there is such an open door for service as the Church has never known; in which there is a faithful company who are keeping God’s Word, and who are themselves being kept of God; an era in which the Church presents much for God’s approval, but an era which is fast fading out into the Laodicean time of lukewarmness, self-sufficiency, empty profession, fleshly pride, and false security, on which the day of the Lord will break over the unthinking multitude who suppose themselves to be Christians, and are not. But, for this morning, we have the pleasant task of studying the Church against which Christ uttered not one word of condemnation. Happy Church it ought to have been; and happy the church of the present hour that receives a like approval from the Son of God. What are its lessons to us? TO THE GOD OFFERS AN OPEN DOOR“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”.God is the Author of our opportunities.“Behold, I have set before thee an open door”.He does things with a generous hand. When He provides, there is no lack. When we meet men who complain that they would have been eminently successful in the world had they only enjoyed sufficient opportunities, we wonder at the impudence which charges against God failure in providing for them. Orison Swett Marden says, “The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of a weak, vacillating mind. Opportunities! Every life is full of them. * * Existence is the privilege of effort; and when that privilege is met like a man, opportunities, to succeed along the line of your aptitude, will come faster than you can use them. If a slave like Fred Douglas can elevate himself into an orator, editor and statesman, when he did not own even his own body, who shall excuse his failure, by saying, ‘God set before me no open door.’” Austin Phelps says, “Vigilance in watching opportunity; tact and daring in seizing upon opportunity; force and persistence in crowding opportunity to its utmost of possible achievement—these are the martial virtues which must command success.”And that which is true of the business and social world, is equally the truth of the religious world. The man who is thoroughly in earnest in his desire to do God’s work may face in any direction and he will find an open door before him. We often say of the active Christian—“He is so busy; has so much to do,” and yet there are no more open doors about one member of the church than about another. The difference is, that what one ignores, another enters; what one closes by indisposition, or blindness, another pushes further ajar by taking possession. Talk of the want of open doors in a world like this where sin reigns, and its lost subjects touch us at every turn, and your very speech will prove the hollowness of your profession! Paul says, “When I came to Troas to preach Christ’s Gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit”. And did Paul ever enter a city without finding an open door before him? Put him into the dungeon at Rome, and even there, God says, “Behold, I have set before thee an open door”. Ah, beloved! God, who is the Author of our opportunities, fills up, for every man, every hour. “There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries; And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.” “ ’Tis never offered twice; seize, then, the hour When fortune smiles, and duty points the way; Nor shrink aside to ‘scape the specter fear, Nor pause, though pleasure beckon from her bower; But bravely bear thee onward to the goal.” He is the Preserver of our privileges. “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it”. There are people in the world who are always saying, that somebody else is responsible for their failures. “I could have stood well in society, if that woman had not slandered me; I could have succeeded in business, if that man had not defrauded me; I could have had a liberal education, if only that old miser had loaned me the money; I could have been elected to office, if only the press had published the truth; I could have been an efficient servant in the church, if only the preacher had had adapted his sermons to my needs and conformed his conduct to my ideas.” But God says the faithful cannot be defeated by man. “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it”. God is right. Poverty tried to shut the door to prominence against Abraham Lincoln; plain breeding attempted the same; a homely face added its effort; ungainly manners did what they could; political enemies plied their evil arts in the same direction; professed friends misunderstood and maligned; the public press outraged him; the South anathamatized him; and Booth put a bullet through his body, and yet, the door was never shut. It was as true in the hour of his dying as it had ever been in the day of his living, that God was setting before him an open door, and no man could shut it. What was true in statesmanship for him, was true in Christian labors for Adoniram Judson. When God called him to the work of a foreign missionary, and opened before him India’s door, by much the greater majority of his own denomination—the Congregationalist tried to shut that door.

When he became Baptist, through his study of the Bible, that people behaved no better. The English, who were in India to get gain, did their utmost to defeat his work; the natives opposed it and imprisoned him; the obduracy of human hearts held out against the Gospel for seven long years, and yet God was truthfully saying to Judson, “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it”. And, through that door, Judson carried the Gospel to India. Every church has before it an open door of privilege, which God is preserving for it; and if its membership is faithful, no man can shut it. Witness Spurgeon’s church in London; think of the day when the newspapers of that city published most scurrillous articles against its pastor, and employed its cartoons to cripple the work. Witness the early beginnings of George Mueller’s efforts, confronted by a multitude of critics. Witness the experience of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, when friend and foe alike seemed to oppose the brainy and big-hearted Beecher. Witness the beginnings of Moody’s work in Chicago, subjected to the scoffs of the high and the scorn of the learned; and yet God was saying to the churches beginning in each instance, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it”.God’s grace is stirred by good behavior.“For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My Word, and hast not denied My Name”.Feebleness is no insuperable barrier to success. A little strength—keeping the Word of God, and holding fast in the Name of Jesus, will come into such favor with God as means a fortune.

The very denomination to which I belong was once a feeble folk, but with their little strength, they held faithfully to the Word of God and to the Name of Jesus Christ. Now the little one has become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation.THE ARE OVER THE FALSE“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”.The faithful shall be opposed by the false. This excellent Church at Philadelphia was severely criticized, by those who called themselves Jews, for having admitted the “dogs” of Gentiles into its membership. The faithful Church of Christ will always find opposition from the world, and misjudgment and mis-statement from those who ought to be its friends. It was so in the early Church. Saul was but one of the thousands of persecutors. The Caesars ordered the Christian’s heads off. Proconsuls looked after the execution of their order; with hot irons, flesh hooks, sharpened saws, pitch and torches, bears, lions, and mad bulls, they tormented, tore asunder, and consumed hundreds and thousands of the faithful. Is it to be expected, then, that the time should ever come when the world will not oppose the Church; when Satan will not set himself against them that serve the Son of God? No! No! “If ye were of the world, the world would love its own”, said Chirst, “but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you”. And again He said, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you”! The church that is faithful will easily remove that woe. And yet, the false will come to the feet of the faithful.“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”.A few years since, I listened to a lecture on “Savonarola” by Dr. Gunsaulus, in which he gave a graphic description of that great preacher’s work in Florence, and of the oppositions he encountered from Lorenzo, the Magnificent. He told how Lorenzo attempted to buy off Savonarola with his gold coin, and how Savonarola gave it to the poor. He told how he sent a committee of very conservative and very eloquent gentlemen to counsel Savonarola to speak more smoothly, more in keeping with the times, and when this failed he sent his threats. But one day Lorenzo is dying, and he calls Savonarola into his presence, and says, “What shall I do?” “Believe,” says Savonarola, “on the infinite grace of a forgiving God.” “I will,” said Lorenzo. “What else?” “Restore your ill-gotten gains!” And the whole room shook with the thunder of Savonarola’s tones. Lorenzo loved his ill-gotten treasures, and it was hard to give them up. But at last he said, “I will, what else?” “Restore the liberties of Florence.” And while much that Lorenzo had done could never be undone, Gunsaulus says, “He knew that that was a command from a commanding soul that would be obeyed by the grace of God.” You can put a Savonarola on trial before a Lorenzo, a Paul on trial before a Felix, a church on trial before the world, but God will change it all about, and Lorenzo at last will come to Savonarola’s feet, Felix will tremble under the Apostle’s words, and the world itself will bow down before the Church, for Christ hath said it, “Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee”. In fact, the prophecy of the future state of the Church fits with this same promise, for is it not written of the Head of the Church—even Christ— “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the end, of the earth.“They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him; and His enemies shall lick the dust.“The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.“Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him” (Psalms 72:8-11).And yet this victory is not to be one of flesh over flesh; it is not to be a victory of man over man; no element of vengeance is to enter into it. A man who takes pleasure in merely defeating his fellows is not a Christian! But the true Christian, like Christ Himself, longs to see those who have opposed the Truth, conquered by it; longs to see those who have rebelled against God brought low in humility and repentance; and that is the promise. THOSE THAT KEEP THE WORD ARE KEPT OF GOD“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”.The Word was to these Christians God’s will. There were no higher critics in this company. They entertained no doubts about inspiration. They got up no “Polychrome” Bible. In simplicity of faith they accepted the statement, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:“That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).Charles Spurgeon says, “They believed this word a vein of pure gold. * * A star without a speck; a sun without a blot; a light without darkness.’ Happy the church that stands today for that same Word; that rallies its forces around the Book which is indeed the center and citadel of Christianity, for their citadel will never give way even when the heavens and the earth shall pass. Dr. Pierson, speaking of the present-day critics to overthrow it, says, “It has successfully resisted the assaults of 4, 000 years. It is too strong in itself, and in its hold on the hearts of men to be overthrown. As well attempt with pop-guns and putty to demolish Gibraltar, or to root up, by hand, the cedars of Lebanon.” The Word was their working-plan. When it is said of them, “Thou hast kept the word of My patience”, and again, “Thou * * hast kept My Word”, the meaning is not that they have kept it as some people keep their Bibles, on the top-most shelf in the library, unstudied and dust-covered! But they kept it by studying it. They kept it by practicing it. They kept it by conforming life to its plans, as the carpenter follows the plans of the architect. Mr. Beecher says, “A great many people think that the Bible is a very sacred Book. I will tell you how it is a sacred Book. If you read this Book and find moral qualities in it, and they are transferred as living virtues to you, then to you it becomes a sacred Book. This Book is sacred to you just so far as its teachings are incorporated in your experience and feeling and not a bit further. * * So much of the Bible as you vitalize is valuable to you. But so much of it as you do not vitalize is of no use to you. “So let our lips and lives express The holy Gospel we profess; So let our works and virtue shine, To prove the doctrine all Divine. “Thus shall we best proclaim abroad The honors of our Saviour God, When His salvation reigns within, And grace subdues the power of sin. “Religion bears our spirits up, While we expect that Blessed Hope, — The bright appearance of the Lord, And faith stands leaning on His Word.” Their obedience brought down a Divine blessing.“Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee in the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”.And it is true. The man who is faithful to the Word, will find God faithful to him. The man that obeys its teachings will receive the divinest blessing upon that obedience. Do you remember what God said to Joshua? “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8). But this Epistle to the Church at Philadelphia teaches us a fourth lesson, TRIUMPH IN CHRIST HAS ITS RETURNS“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”.It is a great return to be known as a temple-pillar. In Galatians 2:9 James, Peter and John are spoken of as “pillars” of the early Church. O. P. Eaches says, “Men and churches leaned upon them * *. A pillar means solidity, firmness, strength; something that can be depended upon.” Ah, beloved, such men are the need of the churches today.

Of learned men, we have many; of talented men, a multitude; of enthusiastic men, a few; but of dependable men, men fit to be pillars; men, of whom it may be said, as of Hannaniah, “He was a faithful man”, or Antipas, of whom the ascended Jesus spake, saying, “My witness, My faithful one,” what a demand? There isn’t a feature of church-life but is suffering for such men and such women; those, who, when they accept an office, can be fully trusted to discharge it faithfully; and when we find them, how we prize them! I know of no compliment possible to the present-day Christian that is to be compared with this “he is a dependable man—a very pillar by God’s appointment.” Triumph in Christ also brings to the believer the noblest names.“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”.What an honor to wear these names! When Judson had been some time among the heathen, and they had seen much of his matchless character, they commenced to call him “Christ’s man.” In England, members of the High Church are called church-men, but many of them are unworthy the name. The true church-man is often found among dissenters instead. A few months since Deacon Chipman died in Boston. The newspapers, speaking of his splendid life, said, “That magnificent institution, Tremont Temple, into whose plans and projects he had put his best thought, and for the very existence of which his life was largely responsible, will remain as a monument to his memory.” Such men, then, are the ones intended by our text; Christ’s man indeed, the true churchman indeed! Queen Mary was so much attached to her beautiful Calais, that when, in the exegencies of war, she lost it, she affirmed in her grief, that the name would be found written on her heart. And on the heart of the true Christian is written, in letters of light, the name of “CHRIST,” and the name of His conquering CHURCH.Men on earth may read it in the lives lived below, and the angels of God will rejoice in that writing, when the saints have ascended to the Throne. And, finally, the man triumphant in Christ is to fill the noblest office.“And I will write upon him My new Name”.What is the new Name of Jesus? You know what some of His old names are. “Immanuel— God with us,” “Wonderful—Counselor”, “The Mighty God”, “The Everlasting Father”, “The Prince of Peace”, etc. But, ah, His new Name is the sweetest of them all. “Thou shalt call His Name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins”. What a name to wear—the Name of Jesus, the Name that means Saviour of one’s fellows; and such we ought to be. ’Twas in 1854, off Lime Rock Lighthouse, New Port, R. I., that a cat-boat, containing four young men was capsized. Keeper Lewis was not at home, and his sick wife could do nothing. But as a little daughter, Ida, 12 years old, looked out upon the cold waves, swept by a terrible storm, and saw now and then the up-turned cat-boat rise upon a crest to quickly disappear in a trough, she knew that the four men could not long cling. She flung herself into a small boat, and, daring death, went to the rescue. God was with her and she brought the four safely to land.

In later years she rescued nine others. Ah, that is our work, —to save the sinking. And if, through the power of Christ, we compass it, —saviours, shall be the name by which we shall be known in Heaven. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches”.

Revelation 3:8

THE WIDE OPEN DOOR Revelation 3:8 Preached to encourage the great building enterprises that were finished in 1924 and 1925. THIS was God’s message to the ancient Church of ancient Philadelphia. God’s messages never grow old! The truth for the First Church of Philadelphia, nineteen hundred years ago, is none the less true of and for the First Church of Minneapolis 1915. There are differences between the Orient and the Occident; great changes have been wrought in twenty centuries; but since human nature remains the same, the character and mission of God’s Church have altered in nothing. The Church in Philadelphia was made up of an exceptional body of believers; they are the only company of the seven, to whom these Letters of the Revelation were written, that escaped criticism. It is not, on that account, to be imagined that they were perfect; but, rather, that they fared well by comparison. Exactly so is it with this body of believers in the public estimation; and for our further improvement, our greater progress, I have chosen to make this text the basis of a solemn and urgent appeal. It involves The Gate of Opportunity, The Ground of Responsibility, and The Gospel of Acceptability. THE GATE OF “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door”.In this text, He combines a compliment and a call. “I know thy works” was the Spirit’s compliment; “Behold, I have set before thee an open door” was the Divine call. “And no man can shut it” was the Divine assurance. Let me, therefore, remind you of the three important facts suggested by these sentences. It was a door of great opening! Philadelphia was but little more than a village as compared with Minneapolis; so the opportunity of that Church was meager as compared with the one before which the membership of this body stands. I know the larger cities of the United States reasonably well. It has been my privilege to preach the Gospel in practically every one of them. I have walked their streets; I have studied the location of their churches; I have meditated upon their religious problems, and I declare it my mature conviction that there is not a church on this continent that enjoys today an opportunity superior to that, opening now, before this body of believers. In fact, I know of no other city of its size where a solitary church comes as nearly being the sole arbiter of the religious destiny of the city’s heart as does this one. The entire field to which seven great evangelical churches were giving themselves twenty years ago, when I came here, has been voluntarily surrendered to this one institution, and the eyes of all the city are upon us as we approach a task as Herculean as its opportunities are Titan. What we do with this opportunity will, in my judgment, come more nearly determining the destiny of Minneapolis than the most far-seeing man among us has ever yet imagined. Truly did John J. Gray write of opportunity: “Master of human destinies am I! Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait. Cities and fields I walk: I penetrate Deserts and seas remote, and passing by Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late I knock unbidden once, at every gate. If sleeping, wake;—if feasting, rise before I turn away. It is the hour of fate. And they who follow on reach every state Mortals desire, and conquer every foe Save death: but those who doubt or hesitate Condemned to failure, penury, and woe Seek me in vain and uselessly implore I answer not, and I return no more.” If was set ajar of God! “Behold I have set before thee an open door”. There are no doors, but, at His touch, turn on their hinges. I believe that Stopford Brooke was right when he wrote: “God dwells in the great movements of the world, in the great ideas which act in the human race. Find Him there in the interests of man. Find Him by sharing in those interests, by helping all who are striving for truth, for education, for progress, for liberty.” Let me add to Stopford Brooke’s words “and for sanctity!” In 1854 Charles Spurgeon, a young man in London, began to preach to a handful of people in an ordinary church building in the great metropolis of London. His simple, earnest, Gospel appeals shortly filled the small house: and others crowded to its doors and were eager to hear. This, Spurgeon accepted as an evidence of Divine favor. He believed that God was there; and he persuaded his people to quit the church temporarily and worship in Exeter Hall, a much larger place. Before three months had passed the Hall was filled and sometimes the very streets were blocked by the crowds attempting to hear him. When one has passed into the door of God’s opening who can tell what fields will lie beyond? The next step they took was to hire Music Hall in Surry Gardens, just completed for Julien’s Master Concerts. At its opening seven thousand people assembled to hear the Gospel at young Spurgeon’s lips. From Music Hall they moved later to Agricultural Hall, which seated twenty thousand. It was as easily filled as had been the little church where Spurgeon’s London ministry began. Commenting upon that fact, Arthur Pierson said: “Power goes with the multitude!

There is a mysterious attraction which draws us to go where we find a crowd. There, individuals are lost sight of in the mass. That makes for popularity! Many a man and woman dreads to enter an ordinary church feeling that all eyes are turned on the stranger; but you slip in with the multitude unobserved.” This, Pierson thinks, does not mean that there will not be room provided for regular attendants to have a regular place, but it does mean opportunity for the great unchurched crowd to gather under the least embarrassment and enjoy, unrestrained, the things of the Scripture and of the Spirit. Seventy years ago George Lorimer saw in Boston a kindred opening and dared attempt the first Tremont Temple. In that bold enterprise Lorimer proved himself at once Boston’s best friend and Christ’s most courageous apostle. Pere Hycinthe dared undertake the Amphitheater in Paris, a room that seated more than four thousand people—as a preaching place; and he packed it. But Paris in the day of Pere Hycinthe; London in the day of Spurgeon; Boston in the day of young Lorimer—no one of these ever knew a door more certainly set ajar by the hand of God than you and I know today as we look upon the door of opportunity that opens before the face of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis. I am extremely glad for the further remark of this text, suggesting my third declaration. No one man can close it!“Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it”.When Spurgeon began his work in London one man attempted it. He was an Englishman; he was a church official; he was constitutionally pompous; he was Britishly dictatorial; he had the prestige of age, and the reputation of prudence, and consciousness of power. One evening Mr. Spurgeon remarked, as he pled for the enlargement of the little church, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down; and by faith this wall at the back shall come down too.” At the close of the sermon this dignitary walked up to him and said: “Let us never hear of that again.” To which the young preacher answered—Let it stand recorded forever to his honor—“What do you mean? You will hear no more about it when it is done, and therefore the sooner you set about it, the better.” And that faith, combined with that courage, resulted in the speedy commencement of an enlarging work, which finally resulted in a tabernacle seating six thousand people, to which the people of London pressed for years to hear the Word of Life at the lips of the man who dared believe in God and in His Gospel. I have often wondered if it ever occurs to the man who counts himself a “conservative,” and who honestly believes that it is his chief business to sit upon a safety valve and keep church people from running into danger to reckon up the results of an opposition to a plan that is Divine. Why do you suppose the inspired writer took pains to record the instance of the report of the spies at Kadesh Barnea? What did God mean when He caused it to be set down, never to be forgotten, that ten of those men declared the task to which Moses was leading the people, an impossible one; and reminded the people, in language, possibly true enough, of “walled cities” and “giants” there; and then took equal pains to record the words of those two supposedly injudicious, extravagant and aggressive souls—Joshua and Caleb—“Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it”.Doubtless there are times when the aggressive, optimistic man is wrong; but history is replete with the illustrations of disaster in the wake of the dyspeptic and the discouraged. One of the commonest crimes known to America, and in the popular judgment, one of the most terrible as well, is foeticide, or infanticide; but I would rather take the position of that poor, foolish, criminal mother who destroys the fruit of her womb before she has ever lived to see what beauty and strength might have one day clothed her child, than to take his position or hers who selfishly and ruthlessly throttles, in its infancy, the institution or movement begotten by the Holy Ghost. And let me say in passing, that while no man is under the slightest obligation to aid in an enterprise or movement in which he does not believe, he cannot escape obligation to one in which he believes by simply passing by on the other side, and leaving it to struggle without his attention. The priest and the Levite came under condemnation. The very fact that a child is coming to the birth lays, not only upon every member of the household, but even the community itself, the obligation to render to the mother all needful assistance; and what one of us could ever forgive himself if he declined to lend aid easily within our power, should mother or babe, or both, perish! Beloved, let me say it this morning, with all the vehemence of my soul, I believe this is the hour of the birth-pangs of the greatest and best institution Minneapolis is ever to know in her history. And I pray God to help me play my part well! THE GROUND OF “Thou hast a little strength”. The possession of strength imposes responsibility. A Bible study on that subject would convince the most skeptical. When I turned to this Word in my concordance, I found it required columns to voice it. Solomon writes: “The glory of young men is their strength”. John, in his First Epistle (1 John 2:14), says, “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong”. On one occasion David breaks forth in a psalm recorded in Second Samuel and the twenty-second chapter, that equals any appearing in the Book of the Psalms itself. Remembering his victory against enemies, how they had fallen under his feet, he said: “Thou hast girded me with strength to battle”. No one who has ever read Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserable” can forget how Jean Val Jean, the great soul, —misjudged and hunted as a criminal, — passing the road saw a wagoner with his cart mired so deeply that his team was stalled. Jean Val Jean knew his own strength, developed in the gallies; and, even at the risk of detection and reincarceration, he crawled under the wagon and used his great muscles to lift the load from the mud. He believed his strength to be the measure of his responsibility. Dr. A. J. Gordon calls attention to a fact of Baptist polity never to be forgotten or over-looked in these words: “My brethren, need I tell you that responsibility is the mother of activity, that necessity is the spring of prevailing prayer? Therefore I affirm that the greatest problem which we have to solve is that of putting the weight of spiritual obligation, which belongs to every church and every Christian, upon every church and every Christian. I believe that our Divinely appointed church polity was ordained for this very purpose, and if rightly carried out can effect it as no Presbyterian or Episcopal government can do.

By a wonderful arrangement of natural law the atmosphere presses with a weight of fifteen pounds to the square inch on every human body. Unite a thousand people in one body and you do not relieve the pressure by a single ounce from any single individual. Would that the same law held good in regard to the weight of moral and spiritual responsibility.” It does, from the Divine standpoint! The smaller the body the less the air pressure upon it; the larger the more. That is God’s Law! If we judged the size of some men by the way they discharge their responsibilities, we would need a magnifying glass every time we tried to find them. To make a practical application of these suggestions, let me set in statistical form some things for our encouragement. The entire official force of this church, and perhaps each one of its more thoughtful members as well, believes that the Christian public of our city, and prospered individuals in other parts of the land, will give us aid in the great enterprise to which we are looking. Some have said; “Unless that assistance be tremendous, the undertaking involves an impossibility.” But does it? I have been your pastor eighteen years. We began with 585 people; or, rather, we had that many left after a revision of the membership. In eighteen years we have practically trebled. Then we were giving $14,762.00 per annum. Last year we gave over eight times that amount. In these twenty years we have given to all causes practically three-fourths of a million dollars. If we kept the same ratio of growth in membership and finances, we could carry on our church work on the same plan of expense now existing, and lay aside nearly a million in the next fifteen years, provided, of course, that the per capita giving was not reduced. In other words, our numerical growth ought in that length of time to meet the financial increase of such a building as we plan. Let us approach this from another side also. I believe there are few men among us but could double their subscriptions and still live, probably with equal comfort, and greater grace. If we did that, we could finance this in the next fifteen years, unaided and alone. This movement, then, does not call us to an impossibility. It is far more likely God’s method of setting before us our solemn obligation. This text contains a further suggestion upon which we do well to reflect. A little strength under God suffices for great things.“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” The Psalmist said, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God”. The Prophet Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3:19), writes, “The Lord God is my strength”. But Paul, the Apostle, rose to the climax of confidence when he said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”. By such help, Moses, the meekest of men, took a nation oppressed and poor, mob-like in its makeup, discontented and divided by false leaders, vascillating and weak, and led them for forty years; solidified, trained, organized and educated them, and gave to the world the mightiest people it has ever seen or known since the morning stars sang together. Looking to God for strength, David smote down Goliath, and defeated the army of the Philistines. Looking to God as the source of his help Jonathan with his armor-bearer, slew the hosts of the enemy. “With God all things are possible”. That is why it is written; “All things are possible to him that believeth”.Perhaps the greatest lesson any Christian ever learns is to link his life with the power of God. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman tells us that one Monday morning he was sad and out of heart. It seemed to him that his entire life was a failure. He took up a newspaper and found the remark that “everything in life depended whether a man worked for God or whether he let God work through him.” I saw in a moment that I had been working for God until I had worn the very flesh of my bones and was wearied to death, and I kneeled down and said, “My God, I will no longer work for Thee, but here is my manhood. Pour Thyself through me to men.” That altered his life and that increased his power. “If God be for us, if God be with us, if God be in us, a little strength will suffice. With the worm He can thresh the mountain.” Satan himself cannot withstand such strength. Goliath could not withstand David, nor the armies of the Philistines Jonathan and his armor-bearer. It was that strength that shook the walls of Jericho and they tottered and fell. Unquestionably Satan is more than a match for mortal man; and his strength so far surpasses ours, that woe to the man who meets him unaided. But when God is with us, the path clears; the devil himself retreats. “Impossible” is stricken from the dictionary! The problem, then, of our future is not half so much the problem of our individual or our corporate strength, as it is the problem of our communion with God and of our consent to the Divine leadership. THE GOSPEL OF “Thou * * hast kept My Word, and hast not denied My Name”.That is the only Gospel acceptable to God. The Gospel that retains the Word in conviction: the Gospel that translates the Gospel into character: the Gospel that exalts Christ as the only Saviour. The Gospel that retains the Word in conviction. That is the only way to keep His Word. The man who retains the Bible, but has no conception of its truth, gives no consent to its authority, feels no obligation to its demands, is retaining the book, but not the Bible. R. F. Horton, the higher critic of the Old World, has written some admirable things, and when, to a body of theological students, he urged the study of the entire Scriptures, saying, “No study of parts or aspects will do for study of the whole.

We must be within hail of any voice sounding from the enchanted district. To bury oneself in one valley or to wander along a few green pastures will not suffice. I do not rest in the teaching of the man who sits all day on the Mount where the Lord preached His sermon, but never hears the reverberations from Sinai or the deep-toned answer from Calvary. I like well enough a visit to the Nile or to Euphrates and the best attention given to Abana and Pharpar, but not to neglect of the Jordan, the home stream that cleaves the Holy Land!” It is a great thought. A woman came to me a few days since and said: “There is a Seventh Day Adventist coming to my house to talk with me about keeping Saturday. How would you talk to her?” I said, “I would decline to have her come. She has equipped herself upon one point and she has become an expert in one subject. That is not Scripture study at all; that is only retaining the Word of God in controversy. There are thousands of things, things upon which you are better equipped than she. Discuss those points with her! You have your right. Why not?” To retain a single subject or a single doctrine only is not Scripture study. God does not write, “Thou hast retained My Word on the subject of church-government.” It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”. The man who keeps God’s Word has an acceptable Gospel. Then the keeping of the Word involves yet another thing. It translates the Word into character. Ignorant of the Bible as the world is, it is very questionable if its sorest need is to know better the printed Bible. The Bible in experience—living epistles, —is the effective Bible, and if I did not believe that this greater institution toward which we are moving this morning would result in the Gospel of life and thought and conduct and character, I should never advocate it. Truly, as A. C. Dixon says, “Preaching the Gospel is one thing, and living the Gospel is another, and it is the man who lives the Gospel that feeds people with the Gospel. If you preach a sermon on missionary enterprise, or write a book, you may instruct some people, and they may see it their duty to become missionaries; but bring David Livingstone before them and say, ‘Here is the man who is willing to leave his home and country that he might go into the heart of Africa, and expose himself to fever, and sickness, and death, in order to take the Gospel to the heathen; and that crowd will take in more missionary Gospel in three minutes, looking at David Livingstone, than they will in listening to you for hours or by reading a dozen books. It is the Gospel in flesh and blood that speaks. I think no man of this congregation will ever charge me with having been disloyal to the Gospel of conviction: disloyal to “the faith which was once delivered”. crave the opportunity of preaching it to the thousands of my own citizens; but only because I desire to see it result in “saints delivered to the Gospel.” As one has said Von Winkelried was a good preacher of patriotism, but when he threw himself on the bayonets of the enemy and sacrificed his life that he might break the enemy’s ranks and make a way for the conquest of his compatriots, he stirred more patriotism than all the addresses ever delivered by his most eloquent countrymen. I am not asking to have a great museum built here in which to hide away even God’s sacred Book; but, rather, I am pleading for the erection of a “House of Bread”—a Bethlehem indeed, —wherein men shall feed on the Book, in the interest of a fuller Christian life, and the exercise of a superior strength, and the consecration of all. The text finishes with another sentence: “And hast not denied My Name”. The Gospel of acceptability then involves a third and last point— It exalts Christ as the world’s only Saviour.“There is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”.There are those among us today who tell us it doesn’t make much difference what opinion one entertains of Jesus. He may think He is a matchless man; he may think He was the mighty God: it matters not which, if only he make Him his example, and imitate Him in spirit indeed. It is a doctrine of devils; it is a denial of the Christ that bought us. It is a covert, yet deadly, attack upon His Deity. My honored predecessor, Dr. Wayland Hoyt, said: “Always our sorest need is a true thought of God. Nothing is so determining for life: nothing, therefore, is so important for us as a right notion of God.” The Philadelphia Church called the Name of Christ in worship. If the time should ever come when we cease to call that Name in the same spirit, and with the same intent, let “Ichabod” be written over the doors of this house; and let the remnant of God’s people, that remain, listen to hear the rustle of angels’ wings as they depart, and know that the Spirit of God Himself has also gone. A friend of mine, preaching in London, said: In parliament you will find men trying to carry forward movements for the amelioration of mankind; and may God help them to do something for the betterment of their fellows. But even in the hearts of these men it is the deep cry for God they do not understand which they are trying to satisfy with philanthropic movements.” Only Christ and Him crucified can satisfy! What then, is the function of this church? And what will be its larger responsibility when its greater day shall come? The answer is not difficult. Its function is to preach Christ: its responsibility to live Him who said: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me”!

Revelation 3:14-22

THE CHURCH OF Revelation 3:14-22WE come this morning to the study of the Epistle to the Church at Laodicea. The word, as you know, is derived from two root-words meaning “judgment” and “people,” and looks to a democracy as dangerous to the cause of Christ as were the ecclesiastical potentates of the Thyatiran age. The majority rule is only good when the majority is right with God. And, sad to say, the people of this church present absolutely nothing that God finds occasion to commend, unless it be the few suffering ones whom Christ loves and chastens. The period of which this Epistle is prophetic is the end of this age, for as we shall see before we have finished, Laodiceanism, when it is fully ripe, will insure the Lord’s Second Appearance, —that coming which is to be “without sin unto salvation”. Christ’s definition of the Church to come is at decided variance from that pictured by the philosophers of the present time. One of the favorite themes of the last decade has been “the Church of the Twentieth Century,” and with few exceptions, Christian orators have given their auditors a glowing picture holding up before them the promise of an institution such as the world has never seen— pure in character, powerful through the energy of the Spirit, progressive to the point of victory, — in fact, a church which would usher in the Millennium in the Master’s absence, and effect an answer to the prayer put up by the saints of the nineteen centuries, “Thy Kingdom come”, without any assistance whatever from the King, either in the establishment of His throne or in the swaying of the scepter of power, other than that which might be imparted to them by the Spirit. And, this picture is put before the people in all honesty, notwithstanding the lack of warrant from the Word; put before them in all good confidence, despite the declination that has come to the power of the Church at so many points, and the accessions which modern life has made to the working forces of Satan. I am an optimist as you shall see before I finish this day’s discourse, but my optimism rests in the plain promises of God, in that prophecy which is the mold of history, and not in the philosophy which the Church has received from the world, a philosophy which leads men to say “all is well” when so much is wrong; to declare the noontide before the Bright and Morning Star rises and the shadows flee away. The shadows are yet to come and this Laodicean age is the picture of them, and I want us to look into this age this morning, no more discomfited or discouraged by its darkness, than the sailor is discouraged by the darkness of the hour before the dawn. Three things are plainly put in this Epistle, — IS BY “And unto the angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God;“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot * * “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth”.The Church of the future will not be an idle church. There was never so much activity in the Church as now. Great business corporations do not equal it for organization, and the modern factory hardly exhibits so many cogs and wheels. Has it ever occurred to you to compare the Twentieth Century Church, as we see it today, in the multitude of its operations, with the old first Church at Jerusalem in the simplicity of her methods. The latter was born under the hand of an evangelist and had a membership of thousands before even the necessity of the Diaconate was felt; and, although immediately following the appointment of those seven brethren some 5, 000 more accepted Christ, doubtless there were no committees, no sub-committees, not even a Sunday School Superintendent, nor yet a Board of Trustees. That Church would be regarded poorly organized if it was put down at one of our present-day annual meetings, and asked to make a report, and yet, though its activities did not appear in the forms of officials, committee-men and all conceivable institutional methods, still it did roll up a report on “souls saved,” “accessions made to the church,” and “missionary work accomplished” in other fields, that would make the mightiest Christian organization of any modern metropolis ashamed of itself.

It is one thing to work. It is another thing to be worked of God. It is one thing to attempt much of yourself, it is another thing to be used for something by the Holy Spirit. Observation, when intelligently made, agrees with prophecy in giving us the promise of a Church for the future which shall have its works, but they will be too largely attempted in the energy of the flesh, and consequently Christ will say of them, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot * * “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth”. The Church to come will seek to suppress enthusiasm. One reason why I hope that we are already well along in the Laodicean age is in the circumstance of a growing opposition to enthusiasm. Fifty years ago our fathers rendered their services to God in a spirit of exuberance which is offensive now. Then, all over the house people nodded assent to the truth when it was spoken, and cried a hearty “Amen” to the faithful preaching of the Word. I have had in the past years three or four men of Godly character and warm heart who have dared to do the same, and I have listened to the bitterest complaints against them, and to demands that they be silenced. The presumption is that the church has become so cultured that anything approaching boisterousness is offensive to her excellent taste, while the truth is that she has become so cold that anything approaching enthusiasm is fire to her flesh.

As Edward Moore says, “Moderation was the favorite maxim in the Laodicean Church,” and in the adoption of that maxim it meets the pleasure of the world, for, as the same writer further remarks, “The world hates a glowing religion. It is all very well, they quite admit to be enthusiastic at a boat-race, or at an election, or even in the pursuit of art, but in religion; in the treatment of the deepest concerns which can occupy a soul, there must be no feeling, no stirring of the emotion, no kindling of zeal. The moment you betray any such emotion you are in danger of excitement and are carrying things too far.” But we ought to remember what Jesus Christ Himself said touching this matter, that a lukewarm religion was as distasteful to Him, as warm water is nauseating. Better be dead and cold utterly than half alive and half dead, for the latter is liable to land one, and liable to land the Church, in the conceit that it is accepted of Christ. The second thing plainly put into this Epistle is this, — IS WITH OUTWARD SUCCESS“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”, The Church of the future will plead no poverty. I have been profoundly impressed, as you must have been, with the fact that the present Church is not pleading poverty. Almost every man I meet, when I talk with him with reference to the church of which he is a member, or over which he presides as pastor, makes occasion, in the course of the conversation, to mention their well-to-do men and women. The names of such are oftenest called, and their contributions to the cause of Christ much paraded. You have heard the story, have you not? of how Thomas Aquinas, in a great cathedral, saw the priest counting the money of an offering, and addressing a’Quinas he said, “Brother Thomas, the Church can no longer say, as Peter expressed himself to the man asking alms, ‘Silver and gold have I none’, for you see she has become rich”. “Nor,” replied Thomas, “can she longer say, as Peter said to that same lame man, ‘In the Name of Jesus Christ * * rise up and walk’.”In Ernest Gordon’s Biography of his father, he quotes this from the pen of that matchless pastor and teacher, “Dr. McGlynn told the exact truth when he recently declared the corruption of the church traceable to two things—Roman gold and Roman purple. As fast as the Church became a coffer for hoarding coveted wealth she became a coffin for enshrining a dead Christianity. And today the scandal of Christendom is exhibited to our gaze in a pope claiming to be the true and only Vicar of Christ, living in a palace with six hundred attendants, and enjoying a personal income of a million and a half annually. * * I say all this not to cast gratuitous contempt on Rome, but to bring a solemn warning to America. That eight billions of hoarded money constitutes a tremendous danger. I cannot see how the church can keep hold of it and be able, at the same time, to take hold of the million hands of poverty and illiteracy and spiritual destitution which are stretched out for help.” The success of the future Church will induce self-content. When rich and increased with goods it will regard itself as in “need of nothing”.A few years since I was holding a meeting in a certain city where one of its most prominent churches was pastorless. The committee was corresponding with a young man in another city with reference to becoming the undershepherd of this flock. He wrote asking what inducements they could offer favoring his removal. The chairman of the committee replied, setting forth the beauty of their building, the excellence of its location, the great audiences accustomed to assemble in it, the wealth in the membership, etc. When the young pastor read the letter, he wrote back saying, “Have you the Holy Ghost?” And the chairman was honest enough to answer, “We have everything else; but not the Holy Ghost in this place.” And the young man was wise enough to remain in his old place.

Do you remember what Ephraim said? I don’t know where you can find an expression of self-satisfaction that surpasses it, nor where the inspired writer has so explicitly exposed the secret of that content, as in the report of Ephraim’s words, “I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin” (Hosea 12:8). And yet, at that very time Ephraim was both deceiving and being deceived. He was only another Pharisee standing up and praying with himself, “God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are * *. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess”, etc. You know that man’s good works did not justify him, and God, who is love, could not do so, because he had justified himself and rejected God.

When that spirit permeates the Church as it has permeated it, and as it is permeating it, and as it will more and more permeate it, it puts the Church in the way of its own blessing, which is an empty word, and out of the way of God’s blessing which is a dire need. The outward success of the future Church will only serve to cover over the direst spiritual destitution. Christ declared of the Laodiceans of that past time, and equally of the Laodiceans of the time to come, that though rich and increased in goods, and in need of nothing, so far as material comforts were concerned, they were yet “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”, without being conscious of their estate. Oh, the depths of poverty unto which a man comes, the depths of misery and wretchedness, the unbelievable blindness that takes hold upon him, the shameful nakedness that characterizes him, when he has starved his soul—impoverishing it, imposing blindness upon it, that through its sacrifice the life that now is in the flesh might be the better fed, the more adorned and honored. The one revelation of the future that will dash to ground false hopes and bring men and churches to sorrow will be the revelation of spiritual poverty, and the revelation of the unwise estimate set upon temporal gain. Webb-Peploe tells a story that illustrates my meaning. He speaks of a girl who was kept for seven years in bondage, with no rest or peace of soul, though she was an earnest Christian, simply because she had inherited what appeared to be a beautiful jewel. It was a great attraction to her to observe the way in which people looked at this pendant when she wore it. Remember, we do not forbid the wearing of jewelry, if God does not forbid it. We are not commissioned to say that you may not go to your favorite amusements, and that you may not wear pendants upon your neck, unless God shows you that they are not for His glory. You must settle that with your God. Only take care that your decision is made in God’s sight. What we plead for is principle.

For seven years that girl felt that that simple ornament was interfering with her whole-hearted service of God; and yet she would not give it up. It was a mere trifle, but it spoiled her peace. I have seen people in a solemn convocation of Christians turning their rings, and waiting to see the flash of light reflected from them. Surely, in such cases, even a simple ornament is a snare! That girl for seven years went through spiritual bondage because she would not give up one little thing; and she had no rest because there was a controversy between her and her God! Her soul was enslaved just as Lot’s was in Sodom.

At last she went to a jeweler and said, “I want you to take this and value it for me.” He said he would tell her its worth on the morrow. She could not sleep that night for distress.

The next day she came back and said to the jeweler, “Well, what is it worth?” He said, “It looks pretty, but I am sorry to tell you it is all sham. I can give you seven shillings for it.” And that is a perfect illustration of the real value of the very things that men and women are valuing most highly. They are shams, without intrinsic worth, simply calculated to deceive, to distress and destroy. If you want adornment, listen to God who says, “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, mid that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see”.The third thing plainly put in this Epistle is this, —Laodiceanism is THE OF OUR LORD’S SECOND After having pictured this Church and through it prophesied the end of the age, He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and wilt sup with him, and he with Me”.If then the Laodicean age is on, Christ impatiently waits just without.You are familiar with Holman Hunt’s picture, the subject of which is this text. It represents Jesus outside the closed door; the hinges of this door are rusty, indicating how long it has been locked against Him; vines have grown up, and clinging by the wall have crossed it. The Son of Man stands there rapping and waiting to enter. His face worn with the anxiety He feels, and His locks wet with the dew of the night. Beloved, has it ever occurred to you that it depends upon man to swing that door back and let the Lord in. And, has it ever occurred to you that all within must remain dark until He comes and shines the darkness away forever.

And, has it ever occurred to you that this is actually the door to the Church, and not, as has been the common interpretation, the door to the individual heart. And, has it ever occurred to you that He will not come in until the man of the church, weary of its darkness and worn with the prolongation of night, cries out, “Come in, Lord Jesus, and come quickly!” That cry has been faintly raised already. Thank God, it has been increasing these last ten or fifteen years. Thank God, it is reaching up Heavenward today. I think it must be filling His ear, and I hope that He will not much longer delay. When the Church admits Him, He will come to His throne. That is what He means by the text which follows, “To Him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne”! Have you never noted what the Revised Version says on this text, “As I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne”. A few years since when studying this Scripture from the Old Version, I read this 21st verse, and I said at once, it ought not so to read. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne”, because when Christ comes to His throne on earth, He will of necessity leave the Father’s throne in Heaven, and so ought to speak of that then as a thing of the past. Turning to the Revised Version, I saw that it was so, as I “sat down with My Father in His Throne”. But, oh, beloved, He pictures Himself as having quit that and as having come to His own throne.

I cannot help wondering how long it will be before He fulfils this promise. I think I understand why John closed the Canon of sacred Scripture by saying, “Come, Lord Jesus”, for His coming lifts the darkness. He is the Bright and Morning Star to end the night. He is the Sun of Righteousness to dispel every shadow. He is the King of Glory on whose banners victory must perch, before whose face Satan must fall, and in whose reign righteousness will obtain; and, because I love the Church of God, I long to see her sharing with her King His scepter and throne. That was a beautiful illustration of the thought that Dr. Mabie employed in his address before the first convention of the B. Y. P. U. when he said, “On the third of July, 1866, the battle of Sadowa was fought. In the morning Von Moltke said to King William, ‘Today, your majesty, we shall win not only the battle, but the campaign.’ It didn’t look like it at noon of that day.

Prince Frederick Charles’ corps was withering under the hottest artillery fire of this century, except, perhaps that of Gettysburg. But hark! what means these lusty cheers to the left? How cannons boom and the Austrian fire slackens. Ah, Von Moltke knows what it means; the Crown Prince has arrived with his fresh corps which enfilades the whole Austrian line. He has stormed the height of Chlum. Benedek is beaten!

On, on to Vienna, the war is ended! So let us remember, friends, that on every mission field, whether at home or abroad, when Christ, the Crown Prince, with fresh forces right from Heaven has arrived, even with reproduction of Himself, let us remember that victory is before us; and therefore neither hesitate ourselves to go, nor cheer others to go to the high places of the field, expecting that complete conquest will be ours.”