BY AL BUCHANAN
The last four sermons that I gave here have focused our attention on the letter to the angel of the Church of Laodiceans, the last—as we all know—of seven letters recorded in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. If you remember I started that with a three part series on Opening The Door, Opening The Door Parts I, II and III. And then the last time I spoke—which believe it or not, was nine weeks ago, nine weeks ago. I was fortunate enough that both snow outs I was scheduled to speak. [Laughter.] Harold said I planned it that way. But anyway it’s been nine weeks. Nine weeks ago the title of the message was How To Open The Door Part I. Today I want to follow that up with How To Open The Door Part II. So that will be the title today.
Now from last evening we are just five weeks from the Passover 2008. Five weeks from last evening. I feel it is very important for us to consider seriously what Jesus the Christ is saying to us personally in this letter, what He is saying to us personally as individuals. I think we need to consider this as we make our preparation for the Passover this year. Now most of us, most who read this material in this letter, consider it at all, do not consider it personally. Very few people who have read and studied this material that consider it to apply to them personally. Most read this material and look at it as applying to someone other than themselves. Most people have looked at it that way. I would like to ask us today, in particular today, to consider this as Jesus the Christ personally communicating to us individually.
Let’s go to that verse, Revelation 3 verse 20, where the titles of theses sermons were taken. The title you might say was taken for all of these past sermons. Notice how it is worded.
Revelation 3:20. “Behold, I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone
hears My voice
That’s an individual.
Revelation 3:20b. If anyone
hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and
he with Me.
This is a very personal invitation for us to do this. I feel we should view the entire letter and all that He says in this letter as applying to us personally and what we need to be doing personally as an individual.
Since it’s been so long since I gave Part I of this titled message How To Open The Door, since it’s been nine weeks and even much longer than that since I began this series, I’ve decided to begin the sermon today by just reading through the entire letter and making comments as we go through in an attempt to remind all of us of the major points that we made up to this point so we can have that in mind. In doing so, I actually hope to tie together this material with the culminating comments for today, the material for today into one package. So actually this sermon today, hopefully, will stand alone. Even if you haven’t heard anything up to this point, this will stand alone by itself.
Now I won’t spend a lot of time in some of the areas here in which we have spent quite a lot of time in the other sermons leading up to it. But let’s begin Revelation 3 verse 14.
Revelation 3:14. “And to the
angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the
Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15) “I know your works,
This seventh letter, I believe, is directed to those alive
today in the
Revelation 3:15. “I know
your works,
Now I said I’d like for us to take this personally. If Jesus Christ were to be here in person and ask to have a chat with you, singled you out and took you in a private location and He looked you in the eye and He said, “I know your works,” How would you react to that? Think about it. Because you see as the great God and Creator of everything that is, this Being has the ability to look into your heart and into your mind and know, know things about you that you don’t even know yourself. And He says to you, “I know your works.” I’d like for us to take it that way. As if He’s looking at us, He’s looking at our heart and He’s saying this.
“These things,” it says, “says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.” This is Jesus the Christ communicating to those called to become His Wife, those called to become His Bride, those who have entered into an espousal agreement with Him. We should keep in mind and never forget how much He loves each and every one of us. What He says in this letter is a communication to those whom He loves very deeply. He loves so much that He gave Himself up for us. And it’s that Being from that perspective and that point of view He is communicating to us personally in this letter. What He says is for our good. It’s not for our harm. It’s not to belittle or in any way harm or hurt us but it’s rather for our good. I’d like to ask that we take this, again, very personally.
This Being, again, can look into our heart and look into our mind and, again, He’s able to see things we can’t see ourselves and this one point He makes here that “You don’t know something that I know about you.” And we’ll get into that after a while.
Now in verses 15 and 16, I want to read both of these verses. We spent a good deal of time when we went through these. I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time today.
Revelation 3:15. “I know
your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.
I could wish that you were cold or hot.
16) “So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will
[spew] you out of My mouth.
Now as I pointed out as we went through this, that in these two verses, I believe that He is not addressing the real problem that He’s going to address but rather He’s addressing the seriousness of the problem that He’s about to address. It is so serious that if it develops fully, He will have no choice but to spew us or vomit us right out of His body.
Now there are some who feel He’s already done that and that He is saying by this that He’s already done this. But I totally disagree with that. Else why would He counsel us to do all these things and why would He call on us to repent if He’s already vomited us out? I don’t think so at all. He says, “I will,” meaning that that’s His intent and that’s what He will do if this fully develops with us but not that He already has.
But it is so serious. What He is about to address is so serious that if it’s not resolved, we will render ourselves into a condition to where He cannot work in us. He cannot work through us and we will no longer be of any value to Him. He no longer can work in us. And so He vomits us out. No one of us, I know, wants to come to that point. None of us do.
Now in verse 17. Now
if anybody has a question regarding that, they may want to go back and hear
more thorough comments on the messages leading up to this. In verse 17—and I feel that this problem that
He’s about to address is very, very serious.
Now many people feel that the primary problem that He’s addressing is
spiritual lukewarmness and I mentioned to the folks out in
Revelation 3:17. “Because
you say,
“Because you say.” Now again, He’s talking to you. He’s talking to me personally and He’s saying
Revelation 3:17. “Because
you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—
As I pointed out when we went through this material earlier, there’s not a single one of us that have ever said that. Not in those words. I would question whether anybody that He’s addressing this to has ever said this in those words. It’s not that we’re saying it with our words that we say but rather with our actions.
Revelation 3:17. “Because
you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—
And we spent a great deal of time attempting to demonstrate that the problem He’s addressing is arrogance and pride. And, again, we spent quite a lot of time in that and I think that we made that relatively clear. That that’s the problem He’s talking about.
Now I appreciated the sermonette. I’m going to go back and comment more on that aspect of it when we get back to verse 17. I want to read on through it now. But the fact that we have such incredible need is so important that we understand and come to comprehend that we have an incredible need. Not only for the sacrifice but for everything that’s included within the grace of God that He extends to us from the time He began to work with us until that work is completed. All of that we have need of every step of the way. We have great need. And He says, “You don’t know. You don’t know.” Again, He’s talking to us personally.
Revelation 3:17b. and [you]
do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
“You think you’re rich and you’re increased with goods and you don’t need anything? And yet from My perspective,” He’s saying, “You’re wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” We need to be able to come to see this. Now, again, we’re going to come back and spend some time on this verse later, but verse 18. He says
Revelation 3:18. “I counsel
you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire,
Now we haven’t commented about this yet, this verse as we’ve been going through this. I’m going to spend some time here today. Right now I just want to ask you: How can you buy this? What can you spend for this? Can you take your wallet out and pull dollar bills out and buy this? Can you take your credit card out and buy this? What’s He talking about and how can you buy this? Now this “gold refined in the fire,” Mr. Armstrong because he knew this was the last era of the Church that we’re looking to the tribulation to come during this time frame that he connected the fire with the fire of that tribulation that’s coming. And that certainly is a legitimate way of looking at this and considering this. But you know, if you didn’t know that this time frame would be the time when the fire of the tribulation was coming, if you just looked at the words in this verse, all this is actually saying is “Buy from Me pure gold. Buy from Me gold that’s been refined to a purity. Buy from Me something of extreme value.”
Now Steve mentioned briefly about the price of gold and oil and all of that and he hit the nail right on the head that the price of gold is going up like it is. The price of fuel is going up and a lot of other things are going up primarily because of the dollar plummeting in the opposite direction. So it takes more dollars to buy these things. So their prices are going up. But the price of gold right now is higher than at any time in my lifetime. Actually it’s higher than in the history. It’s never been this high valued in the dollar.
I can remember back in—what would that have been?—in the seventies. I’m not sure what year during the seventies that gold peaked out at around the $800, maybe a little bit over the $800 level. And now it’s bumping right at a $1,000. Actually went past a $1,000 yesterday for a short time and ended up closing just under a $1,000. But it’s bumping around a $1,000 an ounce. If it were a coin, it’s about that big around and about an eighth of an inch thick, one ounce worth a $1,000.
I guess in most of our way of viewing things and thinking when we hear the word “gold,” we think of something very, very valuable which it is. Jesus Christ is saying to us, to you, to me, “I counsel you.” Now again, in private session with Him and He says to you, “I know your works.” And He begins to discuss this with you and He’s saying, “I counsel you.” He’s advising us to do something. And I think we would pay attention and listen and want to know exactly what He’s counseling us to do. And He’s saying
Revelation 3:18: “I counsel
you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire,
“Or pure gold, something of extreme value that I have that you need.” Now again, what would you spend for it? This is something available to us. We can have it. We can buy it. But what do we spend for it? What do we use to buy it with? I’m not going to answer it right now but I think we’ll be able to see later.
Okay, going on. Not only is He asking us to buy this gold refined in the fire
Revelation 3:18b. that you
may [really] be rich;
Now He says, “You say, you’re rich.” And we’ve pointed out we are. Spiritually we’re rich. Even physically we’re rich relative to so many in the rest of this world. We are physically rich but we’re more so in the context here spiritually rich. We’ve been given so much. We have so much in the way of knowledge and understanding. We’re spiritually rich. We’ve accumulated a lot. And He said, “You say, you’re rich. And you’ve accumulated all this wealth. And you don’t have any need of anything. That’s what you’re saying. I’m telling you, you need to buy from Me gold that’s refined in the fire, that you may be rich.” Because He just said, “You don’t know you’re wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. And I’m counseling you to buy from Me this gold so that you’ll be rich.” Now, again, what is it? What is it that we’re to buy? And how do we buy it? We’ll come back to it later.
He goes on to say
Revelation
So you’ve got to buy that too.
Revelation
All of these things He’s counseling us that we need. And we get them from Him.
Verse 19.
Revelation 3:19. “As many as
I love,
Again, He’s emphasizing His love for us.
Revelation 3:19. “As many as
I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore
be zealous and repent.
It’s interesting when you look at these words here in the
Greek that are rendered “rebuke” and “chasten.” Rebuke means to convict, to prove one to be in
the wrong, to bring to light, to expose, to find fault with, to call to
account, to show one his fault. That’s
what He’s doing here, Brethren. He’s
bringing to light a problem. He’s
bringing to light a problem that’s dominant in the
And this word “chasten” means, originally it just simply means to bring up a child. The very simplistic meaning of this Greek word that’s rendered “chasten” means to bring up a child. It means to train children, to cause one to learn, to correct, to chasten, yes, even to discipline. It involves that but it involves rearing us. He’s in the process. He’s a perfect parent. The Father is and Jesus Christ is assisting Him and we are children being reared by Them.
And then He goes on to say that we are to “be zealous and to repent,” which means to change the mind for the better. So He is pointing out a problem and He is saying we need to be zealous about changing, making a change in the problem.
And then in verse 20, He says
Revelation 3:20. “Behold, I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone
hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and
he with Me.
We’ll come right back to that in a moment.
Verse 21.
Revelation 3:21. “To him who
overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat
down with My Father on His throne.
What an incredible calling we’ve been called to! What an incredible opportunity that we have! Yes, even those of us who find ourselves alive during this last segment of Church history. It’s being offered to us that we can sit with Him on His throne.
And He says in verse 22.
Revelation 3:22. “He who has
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”’”
And churches is plural and we pointed that out and others have that it’s not only just this particular letter but all seven of the letters have application to each one of us and we need to look at all of them and hear what is said in all of them.
The Father, our Father, has given us the ear that can hear. “He who has an ear.” We have an ear. And Christ is saying, “Let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Then back in verse 20. We spent some time here already. Quite a lot of time so I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time. I’m just going to try to hit the highlight of what this is saying. This is a portrayal—as we’ve said before—where we’re seeing a scene where Jesus Christ is standing outside this door and He’s knocking and we are asked to open the door and invite Him in so that He will dine with us and us with Him. Each one of us is being called upon to open the door. Personally and individually we are being asked to open the door.
Now three things need to happen as we pointed out before. He must knock. If He doesn’t knock, nothing happens but He is knocking on your door and on mine. He must knock. We must be able to hear His voice. That has to happen. Without that, nothing happens. He is knocking. We have been given ears to hear His voice. Then the last thing that needs to happen is that we must open the door. It’s up to us to open this door. And we need to know what the door represents and how to open it. And there are specific steps that we need to take.
Now I think I briefly mentioned this during one of the messages prior to this that I believe, I personally believe, that most of us have never ever opened this door.
We spent quite a long time with one couple when we were out there, a couple that’s been in the Church for many, many years. Individuals who study their Bibles, they are serious about living this way of life and trying to their utmost to live this way of life. And this lady said, “I so desperately want that relationship with Him and I don’t feel I have it. I’ve never been able to have that kind of relationship that I so desperately want.”
How many of us, if we really thought about this and really considered this, would have to conclude the same thing? That maybe we’ve tried. Maybe we’ve tried to—we’re physical. We relate to physical things. The physical things we can get our hands on. We can touch. We can feel. We can see. This Being is spiritual. We see the comparison in this Book about how high above us He is, how His mind is so high above ours and His capacity is so much greater than ours. And in every way there’s no way we can relate. He’s spirit and we’re physical. And, yet, we’re given this opportunity to open this door. And He said, “If you open it, I will come in to you and dine with you, and you with Me.” And that’s an intimate setting, an intimate relationship. And He’s saying we can have it.
Now there may be some who have had it, who actually have opened the door fully and have experienced this only to have, due to circumstances, asked Him to step outside and have closed the door behind Him. Perhaps some who are hearing this would fall into that category. I don’t know. But what we are seeing here is a portrayal of this relationship being offered to us but the portrayal is we don’t have it. He’s outside the door. And we’re inside. And we’re separated by the door. So what is being described here is just that. We’re in that state where we don’t have that relationship.
Now what do we do?
How can we open this door? Now in
How To Open The Door, Part I we began
to discuss what the door is and how to open it.
And we pointed out that this Revelation
John 14:23. Jesus answered
and said to him,
And He’s answering an individual here and we’ll go back and read that in a moment.
John 14:23. Jesus answered
and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and
My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Now in Revelation 3 verse 20, it only mentions that Jesus the Christ enters into our home through our door and dines with us. Here I believe we’re getting more information and more details. And it’s not only Him, but both He and the Father will come in and make Their home with us.
Now backing up in verse 21, we read this before when we went through this.
John 14:21. “He who has My
commandments and keeps them,
“He who has them.” Now the way we have them is if we have ears to hear and we can hear His voice, then we have the commandments. “And keeps them.” So it’s not good enough to have them. We must keep them.
John 14:21b. it is he who
loves Me. And he who loves Me will be
loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
“I will manifest Myself to him.” “I will make Myself known to him.”
John 14:22. Judas (not
Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us,
and not to the world?”
“How is it we can come to know you and the world can’t?” And He said
John 14:23. Jesus answered
and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will
love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
And so they have this opportunity then is available to us of this intimate relationship not only with the Son but with the Father.
Now in Revelation 3 verse 20, each one of us is required to open the door. Here in what I believe is a parallel to that we must keep His word. We must not only have it but we must keep it. We must have His commandments. We must keep it. And then this can occur. So it seems clear to me that the keeping of His commandments, the keeping of His word, is a parallel to opening to door. So we must keep His word. Again, it’s not good enough to know it. We have to keep it. And as we pointed out last time, Brethren, I don’t think there’s any of us that have not been guilty in trampling on that incredible commandment that He gave just to His disciples that we were to love one another as He loved us. I think every one of us have been guilty of trampling on that and breaking that. I don’t think there’s a single one of us have loved our Brethren like He has loved us. Who can say that we haven’t broken that? The Church has broken that. The greater Church as a whole has broken that. We haven’t kept His word.
Now back to Revelation 3 verse 20.
Revelation 3:20. “Behold, I
stand at the door and knock.
And we’ve pointed out as we went through this I think this is obviously our special calling. That this represents our special calling. The Amplified Bible renders this “I have been knocking.” “I’m standing at the door. I have been knocking.” He’s knocking. It’s our special calling. And then it says
Revelation 3:20b. If anyone
hears My voice
This represents the fact that we’ve been given ears to hear. We’ve been privileged to understand the words that He came to deliver to us and we understand those words. We’ve heard those words. And in order for us to have this intimate relationship with the Father and the Son, we must keep them. We must keep the words. We must make a commitment to keep them. We must recognize the value of them and we must make a commitment to keep them. And in doing so, we open the door. And I mean a genuine with full intent commitment to keep those words. You see if we open that door and we invite Him in, which is a requirement, it’s not good enough to open the door. And you know that. If you have a guest at your door, you open the door but he or she waits for you to invite them in. We must invite Him in. And what does the Scripture say? He’ll come in to us. He lives His life over in us meaning He keeps His word. He obeys His words in us. And so we must make a commitment to keep those words.
Let’s turn to Luke 6. Luke chapter 6 and verse 46. Christ asking the question
Luke 6:46. “But why do you
call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?
Why do we do that? Why do we do that? Why do we call Him, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do the things which He says?
Luke 6:47. “Whoever comes to
me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48) “He is like a man building a house, who
dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house,
and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49) “But he who heard and did nothing is like
a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the
stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
So He’s emphasizing the importance of not only hearing but doing.
Now let’s go to James chapter 1 and I want to focus on beginning in verse 21 but let’s back up to verse 16. James 1 verse 16.
James 1:16. Do not be
deceived, my beloved brethren.
The apostle James writing.
James 1:17. Every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18) Of His own will He brought us forth by
the word of truth,
We had to hear His voice. We had to hear His voice. We would never have been brought forth without that. It had to happen. He had to knock. We had to hear His voice.
James 1:18. Of His own will
He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of
firstfruits of His creatures. 19)
[Therefore], my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, [and] slow to
speak
Let’s think about that a little bit.
James 1:19b. slow to
wrath; 20) For the wrath of man does not
produce the righteousness of God.
And then verse 21.
James 1:21. Therefore
Therefore, as a result of knowing this that we’ve been brought forth by this word of truth and God is doing this work in us
James 1:21. Therefore lay aside
all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the
implanted word,
Now keep that statement right there in mind.
James 1:21b. receive with
meekness the implanted word,
It’s so important that we approach this word that way to receive it with meekness.
James
Verse 23.
James 1:23. For if anyone is
a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man
Keep this thought in mind!
James 1:23b. observing his
natural face in a mirror;
Here is someone who looks into a mirror.
James 1:24. For he observes
himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
There are times when we look into this Word of God, we get a glimpse into ourselves. And for a moment in time sometimes we think about and seriously consider who we are relative to God and what we’re really like and how He might view us. But then so often the cares of the world or whatever gains our attention and we just go away and we forget that.
Verse 25.
James 1:25. But he who looks
into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this
one will be blessed in what he does.
Now this condition that we see described in this portrayal in Revelation 3 verse 20, this condition of us not having this kind of relationship that many of us desire deeply to have but we don’t have, the fact that that condition exists is primarily a result of this dominant problem that Christ is addressing in this letter and He focuses on it in verse 17. Let’s go back there and let’s spend some time here. Revelation 3 verse 17.
Revelation 3:17. “Because
you say, ‘I am rich, [and] have become wealthy, and have need of nothing—
Once again, this is predominantly speaking about spiritual wealth. It comes as a result of our special calling. It comes as a result of having ears to hear this incredible amount of knowledge and understanding that’s given to us that we accumulate over time. It’s not just that it’s all dumped in all at once but a great deal is given to us initially and then we’re expected to add to it. And it grows over time as God gives us understanding. That in itself, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with. There’s nothing wrong with having this knowledge and having this understanding and having accumulated all of this. There’s nothing wrong with having it. It’s precious. It is so precious it’s like pure gold. The problem is when we view it as something that we have come to accumulate ourselves. When we take credit for it, maybe not by what we say. And almost always it will not be by what we say. But when we take credit for it in our actions, we demonstrate that we are taking credit. I’ve heard individuals say, “I know the Scriptures.” That’s a good thing. It’s a good thing that we know the Scriptures but that statement is a reflection of a problem. “I know the Scriptures.” That there’s a problem there. The attitude of mind toward how that came to be. You see we don’t know anything. Not a single thing, not a single thing without the capacity that God created within us to accumulate it. Nothing. We have no functioning mind without this great God giving it to us. We are totally blind spiritually to the spiritual knowledge without Him miraculously opening our eyes, opening our minds, and giving this to us. It came from Him. It is His word, His truth that we have.
In 2 Corinthians 8 verse 1 or maybe it’s 1 Corinthians 8
verse 1 I’m not sure, where Paul said, “We know that we all have knowledge but
knowledge puffs up.” It doesn’t matter
whether we accumulate physical wealth or whether we accumulate spiritual
wealth. We tend to take credit for
it. We tend to take credit for it. And we see today this attitude of superiority
that just is throughout the greater
I’m going to say just a little humorous thing here. And the individuals are listening, no doubt, who related this to me. This happened back when I gave the sermon where I talked about how much need we have. On that very day it was in the vicinity of Christmas. These two individuals don’t keep Christmas. But the lady said to the man—and by the way, they’re home bound. They can’t leave their home for any length of distance at all. But she said, “If we did keep Christmas, what would you like to have?” And his response was, “I have need of nothing.” And it was that very day I emphasized how much we have need. And he commented. He sent a note and commented about that. I thought that was neat that it happened that way that it was just emphasized. He didn’t mean that he had need of nothing but just that comment and the way it tied in.
We have such great need. So absolutely great need! We have need of the sacrifice. We have need of those words, those precious, precious words of truth that there’s no way to put a price on. They were given to us. God began to work with us. He began to reveal things to us and teach us things that there’s no way to put a price on. He began to extend His grace to us. And all the way through the process from the time He began to work with us until that work becomes complete, there will be gifts after gifts after gifts after gifts that are given to us. The whole process is a result of God’s gifts to us. He is giving throughout. Brethren, we need to see the value of what we have and the Source of it. It doesn’t come from our comprehension. It doesn’t come from us figuring it out. There’s so many people trying to figure out and trying to put all the Scriptures together. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as we can get ourselves out of the way. And we can just look and ask God to guide us and feed us and instruct us and show us.
I want to go to a Scripture now. And I’m disconnected from my notes. I want to go to Jeremiah 17.
That Scripture that Steve read there, that parable started off—lest I misquote it, let me go there to Luke real quick, Luke 18 verse 9.
Luke 8:9. Also He spoke this
parable to some who trusted in themselves
The parable is directed to those who trusted in themselves.
Jeremiah 17 verse 5.
Jeremiah 17:5. Thus says the
[Eternal]:
This is that same Being, Jesus the Christ, prior to Him emptying Himself to become Jesus the Christ.
Jeremiah 17:5. Thus says the
[Eternal]: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And I have said before so many times that the man that we tend to trust in so many times is ourselves. This parable again,
Luke 8:9. Also He spoke this
parable to some who trusted in themselves
Jeremiah 17:5b. “Cursed is the man who trusts in man [And now
notice!] and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the [Eternal].
Now just think about this. There’s an absolute relationship here. To the degree we put our trust in a man—I don’t care what man that is whether it’s some other man or whether it’s our own self and our own mind—to the degree we put our trust in a man, to that same degree we will depart from the Eternal. We will. It’s automatic. It just works that way.
Jeremiah 17:6. For he shall
be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall
inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is
not inhabited.
But contrasting that.
Jeremiah 17:7. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the [Eternal],
and whose hope is the [Eternal]. 8) For
he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by
the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and
will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.
So very clearly, we are to put our trust in the [Eternal], put our trust in Jesus Christ and His Father. And the trust that we have in ourselves needs to diminish. We will, being human, continue to do that to some degree. But we need to with every bit of our being look to the Eternal, put our trust in the Eternal, and diminish the trust that we have in ourselves.
We need to look into ourselves and attempt to see ourselves the way Jesus the Christ sees us. “I know your works.” And He says, “You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” We showed in Romans 7 how Paul said, “O wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? I thank God it’s through Jesus Christ.” I’m paraphrasing. I’m sure I didn’t quote that exactly. Paul saw himself. He looked into himself and he saw himself as being wretched, in great need, in great need.
Now again, I’m disconnected from my notes. Let’s go to verse 18 and begin to look at that.
Revelation 3:18. “I counsel
you [He said.] to buy from Me gold refined in the fire,
What is this gold and how do we buy it? How do we buy it? What can you spend to get it? What is this gold? In order for us to truly be rich, we must recognize the Source of these things that we say we’re already rich with. Give credit fully to Jesus Christ. Recognize that’s where it comes from. Commit ourselves to keeping those words. That in itself will require us to spend something. What is it? What can we spend to buy this? Have you thought about the possibility that we can spend our pride to get this? As long as we’re trusting in ourselves and as long as we’re proud and as long as we’re filled with arrogance, we will never ever recognize the true value of this. We will never ever make a full genuine commitment to obey. We just won’t.
Now I want to remind us of something. Again, I’m just winging this right now. But Mr. Schmidt gave a sermonette recently when he talked about the sentinels that guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And he talked about the commitment that those individuals make. I want to remind us a bit about what he covered in that sermonette. I asked him if he would mind if I would use this material and he said, “Sure. Go ahead.” But let’s read this. This is the requirements of one of these individuals who commits themselves to guard this Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
They must commit two years of life to guard the Tomb. They will live in barracks under the Tomb. They cannot drink any alcohol, on or off duty, for the rest of their lives. [For the rest of their lives.] They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform or the Tomb in any way. After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the Tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. [400 individuals.] The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the pin.
Notice this! When I asked you to please remember James’ comments about looking into the mirror, the man that looks into the mirror and forgets.
There are no wrinkles, folds, or lint on the uniform. [Nothing.] Guards dress for duty in front of a full length mirror.
The Bride of Jesus Christ is to be presented to Him without spot, or blemish, or any such thing.
The first six months of duty a
guard cannot talk to anyone nor watch TV.
All off-duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest
in
This is the creed that they agree to.
My dedication to this sacred duty is total and whole hearted. In the responsibility bestowed on me never will I falter
Think about our commitment to keep the words of Jesus Christ.
In the responsibility bestowed on me never will I falter and with dignity and perseverance my standard will remain perfection. Through the years of diligence and praise and a discomfort of the elements, I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability. It is he
Now he’s talking about the Unknown Soldier.
It is he who commands the respect I protect, his bravery that made us so proud. Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day, alone in the thoughtful peace of night, this soldier will be in honored glory rest under my eternal vigilance.
I spoke to Mr. Schmidt after he gave that and I told him. I said, “My response to that was embarrassment. Absolute embarrassment.” These men willing to make that kind of commitment for that duty and here I’ve been offered all that I’ve been offered and I’m expected to make a commitment. I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed at the way I’ve kept that commitment.
Brethren, we’ve been offered so very, very much. We’ve been given an incredible responsibility to represent these Beings. We need to see ourselves as They see us. We need to hear what Jesus the Christ is saying to us, to me, to you. “You say,” He said, “You say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.’” Brethren, think about it. Think about what we need. Think about how much we need. And He says to us, “You do not know that you are wretched, you’re miserable, you’re poor, you’re blind, and you’re naked.
Paul saw himself as wretched. We need to examine ourselves. And I think if we look closely, we will agree with Paul. Read through Romans 7 and the way he saw himself reacting to situations and how that he was doing the opposite to what he knew he had made a commitment to do. He saw himself as being wretched. If we look at ourselves closely, I think we will agree that we too are the same.
Miserable means to be pitied. We are, Brethren. We are to be pitied. We’re poor. In and of and by ourselves, we’re poor. We don’t have a thing of value of ourselves. Only what’s been given to us. Only what God has guided us into knowing. We’re blind. Totally blind in and of and by ourselves to these truths. Blind as a bat. They have to give us eyes to see. They have to give us ears to hear. It comes from Them. We’re naked. Naked before Them. We need to be clothed.
And He says
Revelation 3:18: “I counsel
you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich;
To recognize the value of what They’ve given us, of what He is giving us. To recognize that value and to spend our pride to fully recognize it. We will not recognize it. We will not have this richness which He is asking us to have and to purchase. We won’t have it until we spend our pride, till we humble ourselves fully, and recognize who God is and who we are relative to it.
Revelation 3:18: “I counsel
you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white
garments, that you may be clothed, that
the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;
Brethren, the only righteousness, the only white garments, that we can be clothed with is Christ’s righteousness. His white garments, He’s offering them to us. If you look in Revelation 19 where it talks about the Bride has made herself ready and that Bride is granted to be clothed in white garments. They are granted to us. They are gifted to us.
Revelation 3:18b. and anoint
your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
We will not see this. We will not see ourselves without the great God opening our eyes to see. I would ask each one of us to truly consider this. To consider seriously what we’re hearing here and to ask sincerely of our God to help us to see what He sees, to help us have the eyes to see as He sees us.
And then He goes on to say
Revelation 3:19. “As many as
I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore
be zealous and repent.
If we can see it, if we can recognize it, then the next step is to change, to make the changes that are needed.
Revelation 3:20. “Behold, I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone
hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and
he with Me.
Brethren, this opportunity is offered to us. We have to open to door. We have to see the value of these words that are being offered to us. We have to make a full commitment to keep them in a genuine and serious way with full intent to keep them and to obey them. After the door is opened then, we need to invite this Being into our lives, these Beings into our lives. Allow Jesus Christ to live His life in us, the life that He lived when He was on this earth when He told us, “Love one another as I have loved you.” We will love the Brethren if we do this because He loves the Brethren.
I’m going to quit with that. I think maybe next time we’ll spend a little bit more time with this concept of spending our pride. We need to see how that we do that. I’m not sure.
But, Brethren, let’s make every effort as we approach the Passover to genuinely open that door.
Transcribed by kb