Revelation Chapter Three Part One
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Revelation 3:1-5, “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write;
These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven
stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and
art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things, which remain, that
are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and
repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a
thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou
hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments;
and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that
overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not
blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name
before my Father, and before his angels.”
TO THE CHURCH IN SARDIS
“Sardis” means a “precious stone” or “shining light,” so that here we
recognise the Reformation Church, which was certainly a precious jewel
and a shining light at the end of the dark ages. The translations of
the Bible from Hebrew, Greek and Latin into the languages of the
nations from 1517 onwards, brought a revolt against the corruptions of
the church. The Reformers thus had a “name that they lived” because
they unearthed and proclaimed far and wide the simple gospel of Messiah
according to 1 Timothy 2:5 “For [there is] one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
After a thousand years of darkness seeking God through countless false
mediators for Pope to Priest, for the first time the world heard the
truth proclaimed. The change in doctrines was so revolutionary that the
Reformers were content to keep the ‘letter’ of the newly discovered
Bible without pressing on for the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit
to all Israel in the latter days.
The Lord reveals that the Reformed churches were as a whole “dead.”
This is supported by History. There were far greater depths of
spirituality and truth, which “He that hath the seven Spirits” desired
His church to have, for the church is the Body of Messiah. We are His
hands and His feet in this world, 1 John 4:17, “Herein is our love made
perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as
he is, so are we in this world.”
Luther knew all about the false Sabbath and changed commandments, but
did not have the courage to break with Rome completely, taking away all
authority from that church. If only these great men had been prepared
to go the whole way and reject Popery with its false Sabbath and
teachings on damnation, and many other false doctrines, then the break
with the Apostate Babylonian Church would have been complete. It was
not yet YHWH’s time to again reveal the whole truth. The harlot
churches will return to their mother when the time is right and are now
doing so. These events and the corruption of the true church were
revealed to Paul in Acts 20:25-30, “And now, behold, I know that ye
all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my
face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I [am] pure
from the blood of all [men]. For I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all
the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to
feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For
I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men
arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.”
Believers are promised that they will be that they will be robed in
garments of righteousness that are the same garments worn by Adam and
Eve before they sinned. Remember righteousness must surely include
righteous living. This is not the reward because there will be
believers who never bothered to search out the truth as Paul described
in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, “For other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every
man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every
man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be
burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as
by fire.”
There will be special rewards of ruler-ship for those who obey Him and
endeavour to keep all His commandments, Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for
the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto
the day [is] the evil thereof.”
This is confirmed in 1 John 5:1, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is
the Christ (Messiah) is born of God: and every one that loveth him that
begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we
love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his
commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh
the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, [even]
our faith.”
When we follow Him like this we can expect persecution, 2 Timothy
3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Messiah Jesus shall suffer
persecution.” This is confirmed in Revelation 7:14 “And I said unto
him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came
out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb.” We have a great and powerful enemy,
but we will overcome him, Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they
loved not their lives unto the death.”
This warning to the “Sardis” church shows the Second Coming “as a
thief” to some, will be only because they have not been watching the
signs of the times. To the watching and waiting believers “that day
will NOT overtake as a thief in the night.”
Paul makes explains this in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, “But of the times
and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For
yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief
in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden
destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and
they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that
day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light,
and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be
sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken
are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober,
putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the
hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Messiah, Who died for us, that,
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore
comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
Some Bible students have produced a “secret-silent rapture” theory from
this analogy “as a thief.” It only refers to the people of this
ignorant world who will not expect His Second Coming. There will be
nothing secret and silent about the Second Advent of Messiah as
described in many Scriptures. It will be a rude awakening and a fiery
judgement, 2 Thessalonians 1:8, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Messiah.”
TO THE CHURCH AT PHILADELPHIA.
Revelation 3:8-12, “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an
open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and
hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make
them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not,
but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy
feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the
word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation,
which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the
earth. Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no
man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the
temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon
him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is]
new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will
write upon him] my new name.”
Messiah found no fault with this church. The members have an open door
to everlasting life. We recognise the “Philadelphia” stage in church
history as the period 1739-1850 AD, commencing with the Wesley
brothers. That century saw the formation and phenomenal growth of
British and American Bible and Missionary Societies. The consequent
printing of millions of Bibles, and missionary activity among all
nations, has revealed the identity of Britain and the USA as latter day
Israel, the “servant” nation of God. At the same time great revivals
swept Britain, the USA, and Scandinavia under the cardinal doctrines of
salvation and holiness. 1t was thus that Messiah’s title as he
commenced this letter, “He that is holy and true” revealed the
corresponding character of this church.
Multitudes of Anglo-Saxons came in to the forgiveness of sins promised
in Israel’s New Covenant, with the result that the AngloSaxon race is
unquestionably proved to be the once lost house of Israel. When so many
of Israel thus came back into covenant relationship with God, He
fulfilled His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their seed
would be in the last days “a company of nations,” (i.e., the British
Empire) and “a great people” (i.e., the USA.) It is interesting to note
that the great city of Philadelphia, USA, was founded and named by
Christians or believers who knew they were the pioneers of
the “Philadelphia” stage in church history!
After passing its zenith, the “Philadelphia” church would continue to
exist until the Second Advent because Messiah promises to keep the
remnant of this Church from the judgment or “trial” of the nations at
His second advent. The return of Messiah is revealed in Matthew 24:30-
31, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other.”
THE JUDGEMENT OF THE NATIONS.
Next in timeorder is Matthew 25:31-46, “When the Son of man shall come
in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon
the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations:
and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth
[his] sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right
hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on
his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an
hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I
was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was
sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then
shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an
hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink? When saw we
thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]? Or
when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King
shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye
have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done
[it] unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was
thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not
in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited
me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee
an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison,
and did not minister unto thee?”
Thus the faithful remnant will be saved from that trial of all the
nations, by being gathered into the presence of Messiah.
The “overcomers” will be made pillars in the “the temple of my God.” In
the Old Covenant the temple with its priesthood was the centre of
Israel’s government and worship. Hence to be part of the temple of God
in the New Covenant will be to form part of Messiah’s millennial
government over Israel and the world. The promise of citizenship in
the “New Jerusalem” means the same blessing as that of the church, so
that they become in effect part of the “body” of Messiah. END OF PART
ONE.
Welcome to the Historicist-Futurist, Pre-Millennial, A-Millennial,
PostMillennial and Praeterist Prophetic Groups. I believe armies will
soon surround Great Britain, which is the Zion of Prophecy and King
David's Royal Throne, Zechariah 12:3, "And in that day I will make
(Jerusalem) a burdensome stone for all people: All that burden
themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the
earth be gathered together against it." You are invited to introduce
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how YHWH fulfilled His promises to Abraham. Pastor Campbell's Open
Bible Ministries web site is http://www.1335.com. To contact him use
openbible....@btinternet.com. Jerusalem was delivered by Israel-
Britain after being desolated by the Edomite Turks for 400 years at
1335 on the Hegirah. It was Sunday December 9th 1917, which was also
Kislev 24 5678 on the Hebrew Calendar. This fulfilled Haggai
2:18, "[Consider] now from this day and upward from the four and
twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation
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which we are living and says in Luke 21:18, "And when these things
begin to come to pass, [then look up], and lift up your heads; for your
redemption draweth nigh."
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