These terrible days in Philadelphia were never wholly forgotten, and people in it ever waited subconsciously for the ominous tremors of the ground, ready to flee for their lives to the open spaces. Furthermore, the promise of Luke 21:17 is explanatory of what is meant here. At this stage in the Church's history baptism was adult baptism, and at baptism a man took his personal pledge to Jesus Christ. How comes it, that for so many hundreds of years only a part of what the Fathers had laboured at sunk into the minds of men, a certain portion being rejected, as we know, by Protestantism; but now, when God brings out this fresh testimony, there rises a counter-testimony? I cannot but think that this state of things is referred to here: "Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth." But the Lord will compel the recognition of His own testimony. Again, dear friends, we ought to hold fast to the truth of God, because, if we have little strength, it is there that we shall get more strength. Teach us thy Word that we might in its precepts and live in its light. 149. The call to hear begins to follow the promise, instead of being before it. The heavenly hope of being with Christ is promised as well as part in the kingdom. Wake up to holy energy. "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, a. He shall be a monumental pillar in the temple of God; not a pillar to support the temple (heaven needs no such props), but a monument of the free and powerful grace of God, a monument that shall never be defaced nor removed, as many stately pillars erected in honour to the Roman emperors and generals have been. Particular care is taken here to show it to us. Daniel is clothed in purple by Belshazzar ( Daniel 5:29). Saul lost his place to David ( 1 Samuel 16:1, 1 Samuel 16:13). The following example shows the process from tribulation to patience: Sardis, The Threefold Promise ( Revelation 3:1-6 Continued). Here is the picture of Christ searching for sinful men who did not want him. Thus the Lord was no longer fighting in defence of His own people, nor was He employing the enemy's hatred and persecution to nip in the bud or prune evil excrescences. I do not doubt that God intended this, and that we are thus given a double aspect of the book. They had also little strength in the direction of talent. The Christians were dazzled by the world's power and glory, which was put forth doubtless in protecting, not themselves only, but the public faith of Christendom in that day. None the less is it "the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ," even if it consists not of that which ministers directly to the edification of the Christian in his own position, but indirectly as announcing the doom of such as despise God and do their own will in the face of His revelation. Explore high-quality books by self-published authors. He that chastiseth his son shall have profit of him and shall glory of him among his acquaintances" (Ecc 30:1). We never hear of angel as an official title in the ordinary arrangements of the New Testament. But what an affecting change took place at length! 12 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. iii. When Talkative came up to gossip with Christian and Hopeful, he chattered away upon all sorts of topics, and they were wearied with him. In other words, will only faithful or watchful Christians experience the Rapture (the partial rapture position)? Thus we have had the general condition falling into decline; we have had the early persecution from the heathen; we have had the power of the world patronizing the church; and we have had finally Romanism, which alone (from the allusion to Christ's coming) is supposed to go on to the end. If so, some people ought to be very good by this time, for they have had candid friends in plenty. This promise recurs again and again in Isaiah. He only is "the faithful and true witness." Shocks were an everyday occurrence. I open and no man can shut. They stored it up as bees store away honey, and they were as ready to defend it as bees are to guard their stores. Thyatira does, and so Sardis, and also Philadelphia. "Behold he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." Like an Israelite? Believe it when others contradict it, and you are a conquerer over them all. REV 3:10 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. Often these attacks are subtle. With the exception of Smyrna the other Churches are in ruins but Philadelphia still holds aloft the banner of the Christian faith. So now He is warning concerning His coming for the church. You must not think it is merely a question of England; it holds equally abroad, as in Germany and elsewhere in fact, wherever Protestantism is found, and, above all, wherever this is provoked, either by scepticism on the one hand, or on the other by truth that condemns both with the brightness of heavenly light. This is the characteristic day of the Christian; it is the birthday of his distinctive blessing, and it assuredly ought to be the especial joy of his heart, not the less because it is the first day, the resurrection day of grace and new creation, not the seventh day of creation rest and law. It is a tremendous pagan celebration originating in Babylon adopted by Rome called Saturnalia. I cannot give them up, therefore; and especially because as I read, and the more I read, I perceive these things to be written in the word of God, and therefore I must hold them. Accordingly the apocalyptic visions can be slighted only by ignorant unbelief; for they no less than the gospel or epistles are here styled "the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ." There may be three pictures here. It may be that gold tried in the fire stands for faith for it is thus that Peter describes faith ( 1 Peter 1:7). Revelation 3:10 is part of the Letter to the Church of Philadelphia (Rev 3:7-13). Only this nearness of the Lords coming to reward the faithful provides an effective motive to be tenacious (Alford; Moffatt)." In A.D. 17 it was destroyed by an earthquake which devasted the area. 10 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 reason for the word is that this famous tephra Phrygia, Phrygian powder, was exported all over the world in solidified tablet form in the shape of little rolls. Those men of old time whose influence upon their own age seemed so little, nevertheless prepared the way for those braver spirits who, by-and-by, shone forth like the stars of the morning. They were true and ardent, but with no considerable light of knowledge if measured by a fuller and richer testimony which the Lord was afterwards to raise up, as foreshown in the next chapter. "He that loveth his son will continue to lay stripes upon him, that he may have joy of him in the end. No one goes to hades before he dies death being in relation to the body, hades to the separate spirit. It is very characteristic of the teaching of Proverbs. if Christ be the rule of life for the Christian, and the law be the rule of death for a Jew, it is evident that for a Christian to abandon that for this tends to apostacy. Was it not thus when the epistle to the Ephesians was written by Paul? God has a task for every man; but it may be that the man proves himself unfit for the task and it is given to another. This term refers to earth-dwellers as contrasted with heaven-dwellers, the unsaved as contrasted with Christians. The unwelcome visitation of a thief would be utterly incongruous if they were enjoying the sweet hope according to His own word, that He is coming for them quickly. The once great Sardians were soft, and twice they had lost their city because they were too lazy to watch. There was no life or spirit there. [Note: For a study of the references to the temple in Revelation from a Reformed perspective, see Simon J. Kistemaker, "The Temple in the Apocalypse," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 43:3 (September 2000):433-41. You are children of the light, therefore walk as children of the light." That it is here called "the hour" of trial does not mean that it will be over in an hour, or even in any relatively short time. International delivery varies by country, please see the Wordery store help page for details. And though Catholics are miserably deluded, Protestants do not understand justification to this day. He gave the Christians five promises instead. To try them That is, such persecutions will be the means of trying and proving those who profess Christianity, and showing who were sound and thorough Christians and who were not. Holy separateness and savour were gone. And so too with our Lord Jesus, as we shall see. It set out along the valley of the River Maeander until it reached what were known as the Gates of Phrygia. There was considerable devotedness in the middle ages, spite of the darkness and ignorance that prevailed in point of doctrine. Men's scheme was a mistake, their flight foolish. It was founded by colonists from Pergamum under the reign of Attalus the Second, who ruled in Pergamum from 159 to 138 B.C. A certain Mardian soldier called Hyeroeades had seen a Sardian soldier accidentally drop his helmet over the battlements, and then make his way down the precipice to retrieve it. Revelation 1 Commentary Summary: Read Revelation 1 KJV along with a helpful commentary. Just so God will put his mark upon his faithful ones. In Hierapolis, six miles away from Laodicea, there was a "Congregation of Jews" which had power to levy and to retain fines, and an archive office where Jewish legal documents were specially kept. And in the twenty-second chapter of Isaiah in verse twenty-two, well, go back to twenty-one, we read this prophecy concerning the Messiah, "I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. In particular the temple was the centre of a medical school which was transferred to Laodicea itself. So many Jews emigrated here that the Rabbis inveighed against the Jews who sought the wines and baths of Phrygia. You remember when Peter came to the house of Cornelius, he said, "Now look, I am really not supposed to be here. Deceived by Satan, they were his zealous instruments, so much the more actively deceiving others, because earnest and honest after the flesh. The council in Jerusalem expressly exempted the Gentiles from being put under the yoke of law. Here we are evidently on broad ground. There is no surer way of allowing a child to end in ruin than to allow him to do as he likes. Jesus Christ is for ever true to the man who is true to him. Tacitus (see Wetstein, in loco) mentions an earthquake that sank twelve cities in Asia Minor, in one night, by which, among others, Philadelphia was deeply affected; and it is possible that there may have been reference here to that overwhelming calamity. It was founded with the deliberate intention that it might be a missionary of Greek culture and language to Lydia and Phrygia; and so well did it do its work that by A.D. 19 the Lydians had forgotten their own language and were all but Greeks. He may speak but seldom of himself, and this he does so effectually that there are not wanting those who have questioned whether after all he were "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Every letter finishes with the words: "Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches." As the King James Version has it, "I will come in and sup with him." The things that he saw were the glory of Christ in relation to this book, as described in the first chapter, on which we have already touched. "The things which are" present the prolonged condition set forth in the addresses to the seven churches. He did not like spiritual conversation, neither do any of the breed. (1.) There are two possible pictures here. What had these Philadelphian believers done that they should be praised? If you only influence one child, who can tell what that child may be? (iii) He is he who has the key of David, who opens and no man will shut, who shuts and no man opens. Second, it supplies us with an inspiration. Those who at Christ's call are caught up to heaven. This hour of testing will involve the "whole world" (Gr. We have seen how it was a border town, standing where the boundaries of Lydia, Mysia and Phrygia met, and founded to be a missionary of Greek language and culture to the barbarous peoples beyond. There is an old Latin saying that "the gods walk on feet that are wrapped in wool." These were proper characters for him, when speaking to a church that had endeavoured to be conformed to Christ in holiness and truth, and that had enjoyed a wide door of liberty and opportunity under his care and government. Those who keep God's word, shall themselves be kept from temptation. Obedience, fidelity, and a free confession of the name of Christ, are the fruits of true grace, and are pleasing to Christ as such. It was thus that Hanum treated the servants of David ( 2 Samuel 10:4). It has been said that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" and eternal watchfulness is the price of salvation. The result was that twenty pounds weight of gold was seized as contraband in Laodicea and one hundred pounds in Apameia in Phrygia. Revelation 3:10New International Version. "He that denies me before men," Jesus said, "I will deny before my Father, but if you confess Me before men, I will confess you before my Father which is in heaven." Or perhaps the text may mean that if the temptation shall come you shall be preserved from it. The whole book supposes saints in suffering, and this too in the form of tribulation, with their spiritual experience formed into the associations of Christ's kingdom rather than those of His body the church, yet surely suffering on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Is not this the revival of that dreadful scourge that had afflicted the early church (even Smyrna)? What do the white robes signify? 1. Philadelphia had proved faithful and the reward for her fidelity was still more work to do for Christ. No call to repentance, just a commendation for keeping the Word, the promise that He would also keep them.Now the final apostate condition of the church, the church of Laodicea represented by those ministers that sued President Reagan for announcing the year of the Bible. Like all the letters it begins with a series of great titles of Jesus Christ. 1. There is an immense change in turning to the last three churches. III. palliated most by those who owe their professional status to this frightfully corrupt and corrupting influence. It is not at all however a question of a place of shelter, but of complete removal from the period that is filled by the great trouble or trial that will come upon the habitable world. Read full chapter. The persecutions in the Roman empire would furnish abundant occasions for such a trial. At any rate, the great Head of the church did not think it unwise to say to the church at Philadelphia that he thought well of it because it had kept his word. Still, after all, one of the grand points fought for at the Reformation, and gained for Protestantism, whatever might be its defects, was this; that man was put fairly, freely, and openly in presence of the Bible. So famous were its doctors that the names of some appear on the coins of Laodicea. Discipline your son and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart" ( Proverbs 29:15; Proverbs 29:17). These are the men that Christ shall stoop from his throne to honour: they that have trifled with his word shall be lightly esteemed: they that have wilfully broken one of the least of his commandments, and have taught men so, shall be least in the kingdom of heaven. 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