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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

The book of Revelation, Book of Revelation, Chapter 3, Revelation 3. There are seven churches mentioned here in chapter 2 and chapter 3. As a brief review, remember that the key verse in the book of Revelation is Revelation 1 and verse 19. That breaks it down where he told John right to things that thou hast seen, which was the image, the glory of Christ himself. The things which are which is chapter two and three of which is the church age and The things which shall be here after So it’s broke down just like that throughout the scriptures in the book of Revelation It is a book of revealing not the book of concealin.

It is not about the rapture Though it’s handed that I believe chapter four But it is about the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament There were many prophecies in all the scriptures, like little streams that comes together in the Book of Revelation, they form one mighty rushing river of fulfilled prophecies, like everything all of a sudden comes together. In the Old Testament it talks an awful lot about the time of the day of the Lord. The first time it’s mentioned is the Book of Isaiah chapter 2 verse 8, where it makes a statement about the day of the Lord.

Sometimes the day of the Lord is the beginning of the tribulation period all the way through the end of the millennium. And sometimes it looks like it’s referring to the middle of the tribulation period. Sometimes it looks like it’s just the kingdom upon the earth. But the specific day of the Lord is the day the Lord comes back to the earth in power and great glory and He is revealed in every eye will see Him. Now this is what’s going to happen in the future.

But first of all we have to complete these seven churches and if I was to take seven people and line them up up here and say each one of these seven people represented seven preachers and gave them a name of the seven churches I could call them the you know this guy here his name is Ephesus this guy is Smyrna and Pergamos and Thyra, Tyra, and Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea. So I would name all seven of these individuals.

And I could tell them to say, now, face that direction. And if they all turn and face that direction, then I could say in those 2000 years, they represent seven different periods of time. Well, the last one is the Church of the Laodicea. And so that’s why you hear a lot of prophecy teachers talk about we’re living in the day of the Laodicean age. Well, it just means the last church. Or I could just say, look, these seven swing around this way and stand in the hallway as we’re going through time and all seven of these churches represent all the way down through history a type of the church.

Because you see, sometimes the church that’s at Ephesus will turn into the church like it’s Smyrna. And the Smyrna church will turn into the one at Pergamos. And the one at Pergamos will turn into the one at Philadelphia and they go back and forth because all churches don’t stay the same. Churches change and so since all these things changes, it’s a good possibility that when the Lord comes back there will be representatives. And all churches, as a type of the seven churches that existed in Asia Minor.

Though those local assemblies are not there, there are types of these churches and all of these. And remember we said that the church at Ephesus was like the slipping church. They were slipping away from their steadfastness and had left their first love. And then the church at Smyrna was the standing church. They stood even though unto death and they were going to be martyred. Then you had the church there at Pergamos, and that is the stumbling church, because if you don’t stand, you’re gonna stumble.

And if you stumble, well, then that’s that church, and then you have this church at Sardis, and Sardis is the sleeping church, or we could say the dead church. Philadelphia was the serving church. Then you have the church at Laodicea, which is the sickening church. And God said it made him sick. So you have all of these churches and these types, but there’s something to learn from every one of these seven churches that can help you in your Christian walk.

Because when it talks about the seven churches, you could say this is talking about seven types of Christians. But let’s just pretend for the discussion tonight. We’re talking about seven different types of Christians because the church takes up on itself, the character of a group of people. If somebody was to describe Calvary community church, what would be the name that we would call our church? Is it the dead church, a sleeping church, a slumbering church, standing church, slipping church, I wonder what kind, or would it be a serving church?

Ah, I think most people would say that. Now, that’s a good church. That’s the church at Philadelphia. And Philadelphia is mentioned seven times in the New Testament, and out of the seven times, this is the seventh time, and that is the last time. And in other scriptures, you’ll use just the word brotherly love from where we get the word fileo brotherly love, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So you have different types of churches that represents different types of, I believe, Christians.

If you had to describe yourself, how would you describe yourself? I mean, which one of these would fit you? Would you be a slipping church? You’re doing things. You’re going through the motion. Doing all the right things, but you’ve lost your first love. Would that be you? Or are you standing for the Lord now? You see, if you don’t stand for Him now, you don’t know if you’re standing for Him in the future. Well, I might not be doing like I’m supposed to be doing, but when the time comes, God can count on me.

He can’t count on you now. He can’t count on you. Well, I’m running to die for the Lord. Well, what if he just wants you to live for him? So you may not be standing the way that you ought to, or you could be a stumbling Christian. Well, are there things in your life that you know it’s wrong, but you’re not going to correct him anyway. Is there other Christians that could stumble over your testimony because you refuse to correct your testimony?

That’s between you and the Lord. You have to figure that out. Well, what kind of a Christian are you? But remember in every one of these seven churches, God says that he’s gonna do this, this, this, this, this. So God doesn’t leave things alone, but God is concerned about every believer and what’s going on in his life. Now you might be the one that seduces others to do wrong. In other words, you’re doing wrong. Have you ever seen misery that loves company?

If you don’t wanna serve a Lord, did you know you’ll find a way to get somebody else Does not serve a Lord? You’ll say things negative about somebody or about the priest. If you don’t want to go to church, you might keep coming, but you’re going to start showing discord so that you can get somebody else to agree with you so that whenever you quit, well everybody feels that way. Everybody feels that way. Yeah, but they didn’t until you started talking to them.

People so see the discord. Okay. Are you that kind of a person? Okay. about the one in Sardis. You think you’re awake, God says you’re dead. They were dead Christians. No life, not producing anything, not doing anything. They thought had a name, but they were lives. Look there in chapter three and look there in verse one. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis, write these things, say it, he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven start.

I know thy works that thou have a name that thou liveth. He said, but you’re dead. God knows where you are. In other words, you’re not producing anything. It’s like, you know, faith without what is dead, without what works. So you’re not doing the thing that God wants you to do. So you’re not producing any fruit in your life. Or are you that kind of a Christian? What about the church at Philadelphia? The brotherly love, the serving. I mean that’s you.

You’re concerned about your testimony. You’re concerned about other people and the influence you have in other people’s lives. That’s when you begin to care. And when God says love others as you love yourself. Do you know there’s people that don’t really love themselves? They don’t love themselves. Cause he says love others as you love yourself. Well, wait a minute. Some people must hate themselves. But do you love others? Okay, you can be that kind of a Christian a good serving Christian and for the right reasons might write motive Or would you consider yourself a hot Christian or a cold Christian?

Hot for the things of the Lord that word hot is also the same word is used in fervent in spirit You look around the top of fervent in spirit means hot on fire for the Lord. You’ll want to serve the Lord Okay Or are you the one that’s cold? Nobody can get you to do anything. You don’t do anything. You know everything, but you don’t do anything. You ever met anybody like that? They know the whole Bible. And quote it backwards and forward.

Know the Hebrew and the Greek and all of it. They know it all. But you don’t know the Bible until the Bible controls your life. If the Bible doesn’t control your life, you don’t know it. You quote in verses, but that’s not knowing the Bible. Just like you didn’t trust Christ as your Savior, know you have eternal life, but you don’t know God. You don’t know God until you live with Him, until you walk with Him, until you talk with Him, till He lives with you.

Christ in you, you in Christ, walking together. Then you’ll get to learn some things about the Lord. But if you’re not hot and you’re not cold, what would you be? Look at Him, oh, that’s a good balance, isn’t it? That would be a good balance. just to be an average Christian. An average Christian, what’s an average Christian? Well, do you adjust as far from the top as you’re from the bottom? At least I’m an average Christian. That’s the kind of a Christian you wanna be right?

Not exactly. Not exactly. God says because you’re not hot and because you’re not cold, He says you make me sick. Make me wanna spew you out of my mouth. But let’s look there in verse seven of chapter three, through the church at Philadelphia. He said, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write these things, say it, he that is holy, he that is true, he that the keys of David, he that opened it, no man shut it, then shut it, the no man opened it.

Now, we can understand when he talks about, okay, he has the keys of death and of hell. When he died on the cross, he was able to open up the grave, so he’s in charge of that. He has authority over the grave. Well, he even went down the hill in the place of paradise, and he opened that up and lit captivity captain. He has the keys there, so, See the key speaks of authority, the power.

When I first came down here, you realize that I couldn’t get in any door? I couldn’t get in this church. You know what somebody had to do? Get me some keys. It’s hard to do something without keys. And so now when they gave me the keys, I can open the door all by myself. And I can come and go and I go into my office. I got a key. A key is important because it unlocks opportunities. If you realize that Jesus Christ is the one that opens doors and closes doors.

Now we live our Christian life, believing in the providence of God, that God behind the scenes is able to move and work his will. Don’t we believe that? I believe that. I believe that God has a plan and He’s working His plan and I believe He’s right on schedule. I don’t believe He’s behind schedule. I believe He has a purpose in what He’s doing and He can use the wickedness of man to accomplish His will. So when He talks about He has the keys of David.

Remember now David was the king. He was the king. As a king, do you know that they used to talk about the divine rights of kings? What does it mean by the divine right of kings? That a king could do pretty much whatever he wanted to do. He has the authority. He can say, you live or you die. You can have your stone. They can pardon you. The king is pretty powerful. Jesus Christ has the key. And when you talk about the key of David, you’re talking about the right of royalty.

He is not only deity. Whenever you hear those two phrases that are mentioned in the Word of God, the Son of Man, Son of God. Remember, you’ll talk about Jesus Christ, Son of Man, Son of God. If you talk about the Son of Man, that’s His humanity. Talk about the Son of God. That’s His deity. So as you study the scripture, you’ll see they talked about Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. Okay, that’s prudent. He is the Son of Man.

He’s humanity. He is the perfect man. Son of God, He is divinity. He is divine. He is the deity. He’s God. He is the perfect God man. That’s who he is. And he has the authority as the Son of Man, the setup on the throne of David. And it’s the right to rule. He has authority and he can open up doors and he can close doors. I am glad to know he’s not only the Creator heaven and the earth, He’s on the head of the church.

He is also the king of Israel. And I know him. He’s a buddy of mine. He’s a friend of mine. Do you believe that God, Jesus Christ, is able to open up doors that you can’t open? Have things happen that you can’t make happen? Have you ever got to the place where you have come to the end of yourself. You don’t like the guy that was in the hog pen when he came to himself. So how to come to himself?

Nobody gave to him. Nobody helped him. He said, boy, I just love the Eastom of the Cornhouse that the hog’s written. He said, and here I am. My father, my father has food to spare and the servants are eating better than me. He said, I know what I’m going to do. I’m going home and I’m going to tell my daddy. He said, I messed up. And his dad came and put a robe of righteousness upon him and gave him the ring and shoes on his feet.

He says, you’re my son. I just be a certified. You’re my son. God in heaven knows what you and I need. And he is opening doors and he is closing doors. Have you ever prayed for something and you didn’t get it? And down the road you find out before that was an answer to prayer, that you’re glad that that God didn’t answer all your prayers. I’ve lived long enough to appreciate the fact God doesn’t answer all my prayers. Because sometimes I don’t pray exactly what, because I’m limited in knowledge.

And when you’re limited in knowledge, you’re limited in the quality of your prayer. So you don’t know exactly sometimes how to pray. Have you ever had something to come up but you don’t know how to pray? You’re not sure. You don’t know why I should do this or should I do that? I’ve battled that for about six months before I came down here. But it seemed like God started closing the door and God opened up another door. And I’m still expecting God to open up some doors and he’ll probably close a few other doors.

So you can’t do anything. But here’s one thing, keep it in mind. If God closes a door, don’t you charge it with a crowbar and a sledgehammer. You’ll wish you had to force that door open. If God opened the door, let God open the door. You don’t have to ever do anything wrong, sneaky, conniving in order to try to make your opportunity. If you can’t get something by doing right, you don’t need it. I don’t get what it is.

If you can’t do it right and you can’t be honest to get what you believe God wants you to have, then you don’t need to do it. You always do right. It’s always right to do right. You don’t do wrong. God will never lead you to do wrong. If my God can’t open up a door for me and provide for me or do whatever he wants me, then it don’t need to be opened. I don’t need to go through it.

And I’ll forfeit it. And I’ll live long enough probably to realize, boy, God is so much smarter than I am. And sometimes at the moment it seems like, God, you got to come through. I need you now. Now, now, emergency, flash flash, red lights. And it says, you know, the throne of grace, the throne of grace. What in the world is the throne of grace? It’s a place where you can go to get all the help that you need in time, in the time of need.

See, God’s the one that knows the timing and when you really need it. And I believe the Lord will come through. Can you trust Him? Can you trust the Lord? I don’t know how I ever get through when I get carried away. I’m just talking about opening the door. anyway that’s okay it’s perfectly all right I did not decide before I started tonight I was gonna finish the third chapter anyway see how good that is they don’t matter but look in verse 8 I know by works behold I have set before the an open door now remember this in the book of 1st Corinthians in chapter 16 when it talks about Paul says I have an open door a door of opportunity an open door, he says, but there are many what?

Open door, but there are many adversaries. I don’t remember that. I just talked all that about a month ago or two months ago. You both remember all this stuff. But there’s adversaries. In other words, with every open door, there’s problems. There’s always problems. You’ve got problems in everything. And they don’t always run smooth. There’s always something that goes wrong. I don’t get what to do. He’s going to find out, running, work with those teenagers. Right now they probably just, oh, he’s just a wonderful guy.

We’re going to do everything he says. They’re just going to love him to death. All he has to do is say one thing and cross them and they’re going to hate his guts. And then it’ll turn on him. I never did like him to start with. And then he’s going to go home and cry. WAN. You know what somebody told me the other day? He says, you want some cheese with that.

I said, what? He says, you want some cheese with that. I said, cheese for what? He says, well, no, cheese and WAN and goes good together. You know who said that to me? My son-in-law’s sitting right there. I hit this golf ball that went in the woods and I’m just a wannin’. He says, you want some cheese with that. Now every time I hit the ball and he goes, especially if he’s close by, I’m going to bite my tongue.

Want some cheese with that? But now this church here, I believe, was not a mega church. Now the church in Jerusalem when it first starts, it was probably what you would consider a mega church. I mean a huge church. There were lots of people trusting Christ the Savior and been joining all the time. But look what he says in the last part. He says, for thou hath a little strength and has kept my word and hath not denied my name.

When he talks about a little strength, I don’t think he’s talking about the individuals. I believe individually they were strong because he says, you have my word, you kept my word, you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, but they were fewer in number. You see, the strength of a church is not how many people you have. It’s the strength of the individuals that you have. You see, we could have 200 people in this church on a Sunday morning.

That doesn’t mean we’re a strong church. We will probably be as strong as the people that usually come on a Sunday night or Wednesday night and so on. The workers in the church, that’s your backbone of your church that makes it happen. A lot of people will not accept the responsibility, but I’m thankful for every person that darkens the doors. I don’t know whether you get involved. You don’t do anything. I just, I just like see a warm body that I can talk to and maybe influence them for the Lord, you know.

But he says, you’re a little strength, that you’re not mighty in number. There’s a few of you, but you’re still, they’re getting praise from the Lord. Do you think there’s a God in heaven that looks down and knows how strong you are spiritually? He knows whether you’re weak, he knows whether you’re strong. And he says that he’s going to either bless or chaste in because God knows our works. He knows our attitudes why we do what we do. He knows what we say.

You want to know what the Lord really knows how you think? Look at the next church, but we haven’t got there yet, but we’ll look at it in just a minute. But look in verse 9. He says, Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. very quickly, take your Bible, look in the book of Romans in chapter 2. Hold your place right there, but Romans in chapter 2, and you’ll have a little bit of an idea of probably what he’s talking about here, because there’s some people who think they’re Christians because they go to church, and there were probably some that thought they were Jews of God’s chosen people because they went to the synagogue and that they were saved and going to go to heaven.

No, no more than that. See there in chapter 2, look there in verse 28, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart. In other words those that accounted for the seed are those not just because you are of Jewish flesh, but because they had trusted Christ as their Savior, they were circumcise in heart, not in the flesh.

That doesn’t save anybody. This says you don’t put no confidence in the flesh. So, but these are people that had trusted Christ as their Savior and yes they were of the nation of Israel. Not look over there in the book of Romans in chapter 9 and verse 8. Romans chapter 9 and verse 8. Now you know chapter 9, 10 and 11 deals with the nation of Israel. Chapter 9 deals with the past of Israel. Chapter 10 with the present of Israel.

Chapter 11 deals with the future of Israel. But in chapter 9, look at verse 8. As he’s talking down through here about in verse like in verse 4, who are Israelites? Well, who are they? Does anybody? Oh, look what he says down in verse 7, neither because they are the seed of Abraham or they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called, which is faith. And verse 8, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.

And see the Jews were taken upon this, well, were the children of God? Were God’s children? You’re not God’s child unless you’re born into his family, unless you believe on Jesus Christ. So not everybody is a believer just because of a well, I got Jewish flesh No, have you accepted Jesus Christ as you’re saying so he says that there is the devil and he has a synagogue Remember this the devil has his preachers There devil and he has preaching I have a sermon that they’re working on getting ready for the radio broadcast called the damn the bow doctrine of the devil Well, that would be a good one.

The damnable doctrine of the devil. Does the devil have doctrine? Does he have preachers? Yes, he does. Does the devil have churches? Yes, they do. And there’s a lot of churches that are run by the devil. I’m serious. And can a Christian do the devil’s work? Just like when guy says, I know the Lord’s here tonight. How do you know the Lord’s heaven? I brought him one verse there. I know the devil’s here tonight. How do you know? You brought him.

Well, yeah. Go back to Revelation chapter three. So he says, I’m going to teach a lesson and how that was done at that time in that church. It doesn’t say all these things about it. But the church there at this time would know and understand more because it was to them. It’s in his context and dealing with that church. Look at verse 10, Because that has kept the word of my patience. When you’re talking about keeping the word of my patient, it means that when trials and tribulations and all those things come, you waited and trusted in the Lord.

That’s been patient. When you know the Lord and his word and you can be patient, that means you don’t take matters into your hand. That means you don’t let anger or run rampant over you. You don’t let yourself get so mad at angry you say and do things you shouldn’t say and do then As he makes a statement here. I also will keep the in the hour of temptation now. There’s two things about this verse One is he talking about the tribulation period that’s coming upon the earth and because of your obedience I’m gonna save you from going into the tribulation period Well, if that’s the case then that would make your obedience, the reason why you didn’t go into the tribulation.

Okay, but what about Christians that are not going to be in? They keep going to the tribulation. I can’t buy that. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part two of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ. You can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftempa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and everyday, believing that the Lord is coming soon. Just keep looking up.