Church of Philadelphia Con't

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nobody knew. This is speaking of a future event, correct? Alright, this is speaking of a future event.
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There would be an hour of testing that would come upon the whole world. The known world. What was the known world?
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All of the Roman Empire. And you say, well, world means world. Well, not so true.
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If you turn over to Luke, or I can just read it to you, it says that Caesar Augustus sent out in Chapter 2, he sent out a decree for taxation.
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Now, in the days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a sentence be taken. And to where?
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All of the earth. Or some translations say world. Okay? So was it all the world?
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Was it over here? Was it in India? No, it was in the inhabited
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Roman Empire. I think there is a translation that actually says inhabited Roman Empire. So, when it says here that it's going to be something that is going to take place, an hour of testing on the world, that is what it's referring to.
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Because the context of which the Bible was written, New Testament was written, what was the known world?
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The known world was the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire. Now, what was this hour of testing that was to come upon the whole world?
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Well, if we were to look at the Pax Romana, you would have had, can y 'all read that?
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Yeah, this is the prophetic pen. This is
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John Darby's pen. You had Caesar Augustus, okay?
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He was from, I guess it was 27 BC to 14.
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This is where the Pax Romana began, okay? So, I want you to see, and then you had
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Tiberius. He was from 14 to 37, here's
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AD, sorry, AD. For those of us who failed homeschool Latin, Pax Romana is?
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The Peace of Rome. Okay. And remember, the Peace of Rome, it was peaceful for one reason.
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That's why. And we see that even in our own day and time. I mean, you look behind the Iron Curtain for us and those that grew up in that time before Eastern Bloc fell.
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You didn't have foolishness of insurgents or stuff happening under Gorbachev for those men.
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Why? What did they do? They crushed it. That's why they got 100 % vote. Yes, yeah.
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They didn't put up with insurgents. They crushed it quickly. So, in here, and then you had
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Caligula. He was 37 to 41
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AD. Remember, this is stuff, he did some stuff that was kind of kooky.
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He tried to set up, he tried to set up a standard in the temple. You know, it was on his way with it to set it up in the temple to where they would offer sacrifices to him, and the
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Jews flipped out, and he decided, no, I probably shouldn't do that. As a matter of fact, the high priest is the one who rebuked him over it.
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Oh, so then, then you had Claudius, and this was from 41 to 54.
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He was poisoned so that he could get in place. This, if you want some more history. So, this right here is,
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Rome was, it was thriving, but then, for those of you, can y 'all see if I write down here over there?
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Y 'all can't see or can you? But then, this guy shows up, 54 through 68, and for the first few years of Nero's reign, he was liked by the people.
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He was, he did some things that were benevolent. He did things that was not so kooky, but then he started going off the rails, and I think we've talked about this before.
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In 64, he set Rome on fire. He played a fiddle while it burned, and so that he could then rebuild it the way that he wanted, and in doing so, he did, if I remember correctly, he did build where the
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Colosseum is today and was put then. After he died, there was a statue erected of him.
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I'd say it was 90 feet tall. It was, that was called the Colossus, so then they take it down because they hated him after he was dead, and they put the
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Colosseum up to basically try to remove the horrific things of who this man was for those last years of his life.
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So, the hour of testing, what happened is, this ain't even my opinion when it comes to history.
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Edward Gibbons, you know who Edward Gibbons is? You've got to read
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The Rise and Fall of Rome. Edward Gibbons, he didn't like Christians. He didn't like Jews.
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He's a liberal, okay? This is, you can probably still get it pretty cheap on Amazon, probably even on Kindle.
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You probably get it cheap. The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, what happened was in 68, remember what happened?
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What did Nero do? We've talked about this several times. What did Nero do to him in 68? Kill himself.
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You had Galba, Otho, and Bytilius.
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In a matter of 16 to 18 months, depending on how you do your these, you had that many men try to come to the throne.
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Edward Gibbons says if it was, it is a miraculous thing that Rome did not fall.
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You had civil war break up all over the Roman Empire from 68 to halfway through 69.
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What happened in 69, so this would have been taking place between 68 -69, and then we all know who this guy is.
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Let's face him. He comes in at 69. He becomes the one to straighten all the mess out.
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So in that 18 month time, however you want, 16 -18 month time, the Roman Empire was absolutely in chaos.
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It was certainly an hour of testing on the time of the world that they had never known. They never knew that there was civil wars everywhere.
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They did not have a leader because these two guys were too busy trying to kill each other.
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One, he goes in for a couple of months, and this one comes in, and he kills this guy, and then another one tries to come in and do the same thing until the
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Roman Senate makes vespasian while he is in Alexandria, votes him in as being emperor because he was the general, and he brings some order into that chaos.
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But it was everywhere there was civil war. So if you take the book in its historical context, what was taking place at the time and just immediately after the book was written, that's what it was.
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So this is the hour of testing that was going to come upon where? The whole world and to test those that dwell on the earth.
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Now, that word earth can be translated two ways. It can be translated, and this is the
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Greek transliteration, gamma eta, and it can be land or earth.
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And either one are accurate. But remember, words don't have intrinsic meaning.
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They are dictated by the context. So there will be times in the book of Revelation when land actually is located strictly to the place of Israel.
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We talked about this earlier in the book. We were doing an overview when it says the kings of the earth. Well, what were those kings of the earth?
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As a matter of fact, I think you said it. We were talking about that. Not only did you have kings of the land, which would have been any leader within Israel and its localities.
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You would have had Annas, Herod, Caiaphas. You'd have had all of those men being leaders.
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And not only that, you would have had governors, procurators. So that means you would have had pilots.
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You'd have had all of those men being people governing the land or the earth. In this case, it says here that it was going to come upon the whole world and then to test those that dwell.
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I prefer land here because of the context of the book.
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And it says to test those who dwell on the earth. Now, that is to determine what is that hour of testing.
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That hour of testing would have been from 67 to 70.
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Why 67 to 70? Because 70 was the fall of Jerusalem, which
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I believe is the context of the whole book. An hour of testing.
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Is it really an hour? That's why Keith did a debate with a guy.
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And he was, I think, was on a pre -millennial position.
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And he was wanting to dictate that every time that, you know, these things are used, they mean, they literally mean that time frame.
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Like, well, no, because in the book of Revelation, time frames are not statistical.
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They're impressionistic. And you could say, well, in that guy's case, if every time it's using a time frame, it means it's a literal time frame.
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Well, this says an hour, so it's only going to be one hour? It's only going to be 60 minutes? Or what about when we get to, after one of the,
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I think it's the trumpet judgments, where it says it was quiet in heaven for about an hour.
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Okay. Was that 56 minutes? Was that 47 minutes? Was that 72 minutes? Well, it was the hour, right?
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So this is... Dissentationalists, the hour of testing for them, do they see that as the seven -year tribulations?
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Yes. And we talked about it in the rapture. I think you came in after... I'm sorry, I was just going to ask, but they don't see it as an hour.
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Those who withhold their very literal script, they are seeing it as seven years. Right. So it doesn't even fit their model.
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And so that's why the system dictates how they understand it and said, let the text stand on its own.
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And let's look at history and see how history unfolded. Don't look for something far out to the...
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Remember, the idea of the book of Revelation being all future, that's only about 250 years.
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That was not the view of, certainly was not all the view of the Reformers or anyone before that.
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Matter of fact, all the Reformers were all a historicist view, and if I remember correctly, when did their time frame run out?
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1860. So the historicist view ran out here.
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Well, when do you think dispensational eschatology picked up? Right after that.
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And if you look at their models, they're really close. Yeah, they're really close.
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Even when you look at their church age model, Philadelphia and Laodicea come together in dispensationalism and in historicism.
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They come together. That's a time in which these churches will coexist together,
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Philadelphia being the good church, the faithful church, which we see right here, and we'll talk about that if we've got time, how faithful they were.
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And then you get to Laodicea, and what was Laodicea? That's the one he's going to vomit out.
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That's the apostate church. So God's going to do what? He's going to take up his good church and leave the bad apostate church down here to be punished during his seven years of religion.
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So that is the idea of the hour of testing.
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My perspective, it's 67 to 70 AD, that time frame, that when there is going to be chaos, not only starting within the land of Israel, but on the whole known earth, which would have been the
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Roman Empire. And then it says here in verse 11, I am coming quickly.
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How many times have we heard Jesus say already in this book that he's coming? Several. He said in Ephesus, if you don't do what
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I tell you to do and you don't go back to your first love, I'm going to come and take away your lamp stand. He said in another passage,
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I'm going to come and make war with you, or I'm sorry, make war with those who do not obey my word.
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And that was, I think in Pergamum. And then in Thyatira, he did say, hold fast until I come.
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And I think it was in that passage there that I said, I'm not really sure if he's talking about an immediate coming or if he's talking about later.
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And I was asked the question, how did I come to my conclusion that I wasn't sure? Because we have in this case where it is saying he's coming quickly, meaning there's a time frame, something's happening.
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Okay. Quick doesn't mean if I call you and say, hey man, I'm coming to your house,
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I'll be there shortly. And I show up three days later. Is that shortly?
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No. I mean, when I say, hey, Dan, I'll be at your house shortly, you're going to probably be within a few minutes.
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Hey man, I'm here. Okay. Jesus says here, I'm coming quickly. And then Thyatira, he said, hold fast until I come or be faithful until I come.
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If you go back into the Olivet discourse, where he makes that shift in verse 36 of Matthew, and he begins to talk about his coming at the end of the age, he says, be sober and be alert because you don't know the hour in which
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I'm coming. So what is the command in every generation? To stay awake, be alert.
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I'm coming. I'm coming. And you don't know that hour when I'm coming. So in every generation, and I think that was the idea in Thyatira.
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That's not the idea I think he's talking about here because he's told them there's an hour of testing that's about to come on the earth and I'm coming quickly.
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Well, who's going to do the testing? Who's going to do the testing? Jesus. Yes.
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The wrath of God or the judgment of God. That's exactly right. And it's going to begin in Jerusalem and it will have effects that go out and it's in the
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Roman empire. Specifically, the wrath of God, judgment of God is going to be poured out on the
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Jewish people in the city of Jerusalem. And he says, hold fast to what you have so that no one will take your crown.
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Hold fast. What does it mean to hold fast? What are some synonyms of that? Remain faithful.
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Go ahead. Perseverance. Yeah. Hold fast. They're used several times in the book of Hebrews. Hold fast.
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Hold fast. Hold fast. Hold fast the confession of faith. Hold fast your faith. Hold fast what you have been taught so that you do not, don't let your heart be hardened.
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So hold fast to what you have known. And what did they know? It tells us back up at the beginning of what did they know?
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Well, they knew that Christ had opened doors for them. He knew their deeds. He knew they were faithful.
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He knew that they had been a faithful church. Hey, just something about this church that with the exception of Smyrna, there is no rebuke.
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This church, me and Brian Mack were talking the other day. And if you want to, if you were going to say, was there ever a model of a perfect church?
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I'm going to say, this is the church. Hang on.
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That's the church of sovereign grace. Yeah. I mean, by every means and purposes, he has nothing bad to say.
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And then on top of that, when chaos breaks out with Jesus, what does he say he's going to do? He's going to insulate them from it.
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He's going to insulate them from it. So he says here, hold fast to what you have so that no one will take away your crown.
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There have been some interpreters, and you might have this position in here that this is talking about that no one would take away the crown of life.
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And that could very well be a viable interpretation. I don't think that's what he's talking about here.
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I think because the reason why most people make that conclusion that I have talked to and that I've read is because he's already says, hey, if you hold fast and you continue to persevere, you will receive the crown of life at the end.
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I don't think that's what he's saying here. He says, no one will take your crown, meaning nobody's going to take this.
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When you finish a race in the Roman Empire, you had a wreath that was woven up.
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It was made of olives, leaves, and it was set on your head. It was a Stephanos, not a Diadema. The word crowns you several times throughout this book.
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Sometimes it's Stephanos. Sometimes it's Diadema. And we have to understand which one of those means.
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Well, this one is the Stephanos, which is the one that's just laid on the head of a person that has finished the race. So what does
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Paul say? Paul says, finish the race. He has kept the faith. Why?
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Do you want to finish the race? What do you get? You get that crown of completion. Now, certainly when we get the crown of completion at the end of the age, we're going to be crowned with eternal life.
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So I don't want you to think that's not what I'm saying. Yes, we will receive eternal life.
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But in this case, this is just receiving a reward of being complete, finishing what you have started.
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And how do we finish what we start in our faith? What God has started, he will complete it until the day of redemption.
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He did it. He does it. He's the one that keeps us faithful. And then that same statement we have continually seen here in verse 12, he who overcomes.
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What does it mean to overcome? Persevere, hold fast. Remember all these synonyms that we have seen so far in the first three and a half chapters is, yeah, to remain faithful.
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He says, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Wait a minute.
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Why would he say I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God?
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What do we remember about Philadelphia, the city? Bad earthquakes.
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Where did people live? They didn't live in the city. They lived outside the city.
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If you read Tacitus, Suetonius brings up some of this in his writing to the 12
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Caesars, but certainly the Greco -Roman Strabo. Strabo says, hey, the city of Philadelphia was always under earthquakes, was always shaking, that people's walls were continually cracking and falling.
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People didn't even live in the city. They came to the city to do whatever they wanted to do, but then they went out and they lived on the outskirts where the fields were.
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Remember outside the city is where all the, they had plush land for farming.
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They had vineyards because of the volcanic ash and stuff that would come up out of the ground, made it fertile from all the minerals.
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So they would go in and do their business, and then at night they would leave. Well, he's saying, I'm going to make you a pillar.
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What does a pillar do? Add stability. Hey, what good would a pillar do?
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And in Philadelphia, if it was shaking all the time, wouldn't do any good.
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We're going to see about, we're going to see, hopefully next week, we'll see a city that had pillars and in 61
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AD, it was completely leveled. And if God puts you as a pillar in something, it's there forever.
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And that's what he's saying here. I will make him. Hey, when God makes you something, it's a done deal.
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I will make him a pillar where? In the temple of my God. You're going to be in the dwelling place of God forever.
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That's what he's saying. I'm going to make you a pillar in the dwelling place of God. And he will not go out from it anymore.
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Remember the city that we're going out, coming in, going out. There's no reason to go out. Why? Because it's stable. The place of the dwelling place of God is stable.
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No need to come and go anymore. And he says here, I will write on him the name of my
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God and the name of, I'm sorry, the name, the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new
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Jerusalem. That is the first time we've seen new Jerusalem come up. So what does that say?
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That's right. Yeah. There's an old one. And if it's the new Jerusalem and the old
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Jerusalem is, is on the cusp of being leveled, that means the old, the old's gone away and the new is coming.
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And the old way of doing things is about to go out. Historically, it's fixing to be leveled.
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He says here, and that he'll put his name on them in the name of my God. Why would
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God want to put a new name on his people? Amy, when you got married, your husband gave you a new name.
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He owned you. I'm kidding. She's like, what? No. Where's your head covering?
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Yeah. No. When God, when you take, you took his name, you're trusting him to, to take care of you in honor.
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You, you put yourself under his authority. Hey, when God puts a new name on us, we have a master.
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We have a good master. We are now a slave and a son and a daughter of the most high.
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He has put a new name within us. Hey, even at the end, at the end of the book of revelation, it says he's got,
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Jesus is coming down with a name that nobody knows. It says he hasn't really won. He does have written on his leg,
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King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but he's got a name that nobody knows and that the new heavens he's going to write it on everybody.
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That's the picture. It says that new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my
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God. We'll see that at the end of the book. When we get there after the seven years of tribulation, if we ever get there, you got the, you got the, the, the new heavens and the new earth are coming down.
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And as that's coming down, it's made ready for Christ to be adorned as a bride made for him.
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And why is the city considered in the, at the end of the book as a bride prepared for its groom?
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Because the city of God is the people of God. The city of God is the people of God.
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Look, old Jerusalem is not the dwelling place of God. The new
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Jerusalem is the dwelling place of God. And where does that new Jerusalem begin? In your heart, your heart, your heart, your heart.
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That's where it begins. Because there is no place that can contain the, the, the glory or the greatness of God.
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Nothing can contain it. They built temples. They refurbished the temples.
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And how many times did God tell them, I don't, I don't dwell in temple made with hands.
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I don't dwell there. This is, that was only typological. Where does he dwell now?
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In the hearts of his people. We are the new city. We are the new Jerusalem. We are, the church is the new
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Jerusalem. And then he says here, once again, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
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How much we can say we've heard that how many times already? Six times. Six times.
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Is that not a reminder for us to have ears that can hear? Ears that can hear.
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As we have looked through these seven, these six churches, we have four churches rebuked.
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Two, no rebuke. Two, so far.
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I'm sorry. One, nothing good to say. Nothing good to say.
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Is that not a reminder as a local assembly to look at these churches, look and see their problems, the ones that had problems and say, if we have something like this, we got to fix it.
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We got to fix it. And then to look at those such as Philadelphia and Smyrna, look at them and go, man,
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God winked at them. You've done well. Keep the course.
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Stay the course. Now, does that mean that they were without error?
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No. But because they were faithful to his word, faithful in perseverance, faithful to maintain their not wavering in their faith to him,
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God has remained faithful to them. We got four minutes for questions.
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I don't even want to try to start because we might spend three weeks in Laodicea. Anyone? No?
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No? Keith, you'll close us? Yes, sir.
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Father, mercy says we have for the last several weeks looked at the churches that are outlined in Revelation, still yet to look at Laodicea.
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Lord, we've learned so much about you and how you, how you relate to your people through your churches and Lord, how there are those who were in danger of having their lampstand removed.
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And yet, as Mike said today, there were those who you looked upon with favor. And Lord, we pray for our church.
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God, we pray that we would be a faithful church here in our community, one that seeks to glorify you, one that seeks to be faithful to your word, one that seeks to see your people edified and to see your name exalted.
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And I thank you for Brother Mike for leading us through the study. May you continue to bless him with the study and with his insight into the scriptures.
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And Lord, as we continue to grow together, help us to just day by day, week by week, have a desire to be conformed to the image of Christ, the very thing for which we have been predestined to.