SPEAKER_00: A weekend like this to change our sermon series and preach about the country.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that's a bad thing.
SPEAKER_00: But we've tried to fix Washington for a really long time.
SPEAKER_00: And what we should have been doing is speaking to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Judgment, Peter says, must begin at the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing all these things must be dissolved, Peter goes on to write, What manner of persons ought we to be?
SPEAKER_00: As the family goes, so goes the church.
SPEAKER_00: As the church, so goes the country.
SPEAKER_00: We want America to turn to God.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you do.
SPEAKER_00: But this morning, we need to turn to God.
SPEAKER_00: And let's let the Lord do his work in our hearts this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand together in reverence for God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter number three.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be concluding this series, Lord willing, next Lord's Day.
SPEAKER_00: We'll go to the church of Laodicea.
SPEAKER_00: It gets so bad by the end of the church age that Jesus, who was walking among the lampstands, is now knocking on the door of the church, asking entrance into the church.
SPEAKER_00: There's a door that is open here at the church of Philadelphia we want to talk about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, beginning here in chapter 3, verse 7, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth, and no man openeth, I know thy works.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I have set before thee an open door.
SPEAKER_00: And no man can shut it, for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I come quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
SPEAKER_00: And I I speak from these verses this morning on the subject standing before an open door.
SPEAKER_00: May we pray?
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, thank you for all that you have done in this place today.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for every prayer that was prayed in anticipation of this local assembly as it gathered together today.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for every effort that was made to make everything as excellent as it could be.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we all recognize how we need your presence to speak and to work and to move in our hearts and lives.
SPEAKER_00: May you do your work in my heart as I speak and in the hearts of those who hear.
SPEAKER_00: May we receive the word.
SPEAKER_00: May it save our souls.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be the Christian Lord that you saved us to be.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, if there's someone here today that does not know Christ by faith as Savior, may you draw them to yourself today.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be careful to thank you for it if we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for standing and please be seated together.
SPEAKER_00: This church of brotherly love, Philadelphia, stood before one of the greatest promises Christ ever gave to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout Scripture, the door became one of God's greatest themes.
SPEAKER_00: The door.
SPEAKER_00: From the single door into the Ark of Noah, to the door at the gate of the temple, even to Christ declaring, I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: Every door pointed to access, access to salvation, access to God.
SPEAKER_00: This church that we're speaking of this morning was not the strongest church, not the wealthiest church, not the most influential church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Himself even says here in this passage, I know that you have in verse 8 a little strength.
SPEAKER_00: But they possessed something greater than human power.
SPEAKER_00: They had a door opened by Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_00: History shows that whenever God opens a door, he calls his people to walk through it by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it were missionaries crossing the oceans or immigrants entering the golden door of hope to our country.
SPEAKER_00: Or believers preaching the gospel in hostile places.
SPEAKER_00: God has always opened doors so his truth could move forward.
SPEAKER_00: And so we as a church body come together today before the open door.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants to see if we'll recognize what he has opened for us and if we will walk forward by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into our outline this morning.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, notice the door of opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: There's two big points in this passage, and then one little point that leads us to the conclusion.
SPEAKER_00: The door of opportunity, may I say, may I give you the lead early today?
SPEAKER_00: The door of opportunity swings on the hinges of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Can we all say that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say it one more time and then we'll say it together.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll give it to you one more time, class, and then we have secret cameras installed in the pews today, and so I know you want to do your best.
SPEAKER_00: The door of opportunity hinges.
SPEAKER_00: It swings on the hinges of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: If I say it right, you might say it right too.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, ready?
SPEAKER_00: The door of opportunity swings on the hinges of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: This church had an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you go back in chapter 1 and verse 19, John gives us the outline of these 22 chapters in the revelation of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Notice he says in chapter 1, verse 19, write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.
SPEAKER_00: John says, there are some things that you have seen, there are some things that you are seeing, and there are some things that you will see after a while.
SPEAKER_00: Now, chapter 1, he describes the things that had been or the things that he had seen.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, he's writing about the things that he was seeing, these seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: John is writing these letters to these seven bodies of believers.
SPEAKER_00: He's noticing things that need to be addressed and how Christ is speaking to those churches.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to go with me very quickly to chapter 4 and verse number 1.
SPEAKER_00: There's a transition that takes place in this revelation, this unveiling of the end times.
SPEAKER_00: And incidentally, it involves a door of opening.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.
SPEAKER_00: Now what we notice as we study these 22 chapters of the revelation of Jesus Christ is that the church is glaringly obvious in chapters 2 and 3, and it's glaringly missing from chapter 4 till chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: In chapters 2 and 3, the church is on earth, and Christ is with them in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: From chapter 4 to chapter 19, the church is with Christ in heaven, not on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is that door, chapter 4, verse 1, that door opens, and you might notice those familiar words.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 4, verse number 1, come up hither.
SPEAKER_00: And may I just say to you this morning that Jesus Christ made a promise, if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
SPEAKER_00: Now we call that doctrine the doctrine of the rapture.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from a Latin word, a rapio.
SPEAKER_00: It means to catch away.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
SPEAKER_00: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.
SPEAKER_00: The church is on earth today, but at any moment Jesus could come for his church, and the church would be taken from this world to be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: For any day now, even today, that door, that chapter 4, verse 1, that door might open and we might hear that trumpet sound, come up hither, and we shall ever be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But we can't be in the heavens today in the sense of Christ has not come for the church.
SPEAKER_00: We are here on earth to do the work of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to the church, don't just look at the heavens waiting for Christ to come.
SPEAKER_00: Look to the earth and ask God, what can we do with our time before the trumpet sounds?
SPEAKER_00: So the door describes a needed theme within the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Doors are access points into something or out of something.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, the door represents the salvation of mankind that's found only in God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: One of the Bible's grand stories is that the door that closes in Genesis because of man's sin becomes twelve doors to the city of God, which shall never close.
SPEAKER_00: Noah discovered the power of that door.
SPEAKER_00: If you go back in Genesis and read that ark that is known for animals and windows and all the things we might be mesmerized by based on Noah's ark, we are touched by the fact that it had but one door, which was closed and opened by God.
SPEAKER_00: And when Noah and his family entered that door into the ark, they found salvation in God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 28, Jacob also found a door.
SPEAKER_00: After his encounter with God and Haran, the Bible says that Jacob was afraid, and he said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And all of Old Testament Hebrews understood this principle, Psalm 100, verse 4 enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise, be thankful unto him and bless his name.
SPEAKER_00: It was a door that led into the temple in the Old Testament that ushered mankind into a place of access to God where they found their own gate to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But all of those doors in the Old Testament were just symbols and pictures and types for the ultimate door.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 10, verse 7, the Bible says, Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that we were so lost in a world of sin?
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden the door, our access to God, to the person of Jesus Christ, was revealed ourselves to us, and we entered by faith through the door of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That is the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The door is always Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The door is always man's salvation.
SPEAKER_00: May I say this is a door of salvation?
SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: There are not many doors that lead to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There is but one door, and his name is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Curtis Huts, a famous preacher of years gone by, told the story of before he became a full-time preacher, he was a delivery man for the Postal Service.
SPEAKER_00: And he was talking with a woman that he worked with.
SPEAKER_00: He was seeking to witness to her, and she really thought she found a hole in his argument about how exclusive Jesus was as the way to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Curtis, how did you get to work this morning?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, I went this way and I came that way and I turned here and I turned there.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, See?
SPEAKER_00: She said, I didn't get to work that way.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I went this way and I turned here and I turned there.
SPEAKER_00: And then she brought someone else into the conversation and said, Clyde, how'd you get to work?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I came this way.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, See, see, we we we all went different ways, but we all showed up to the same place.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, that might be true, but there's one problem with your argument.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to the post office when we die.
SPEAKER_00: Five of you could have laughed on that one, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm the way.
SPEAKER_00: The truth and the life.
SPEAKER_00: There's but one way to God.
SPEAKER_00: One name under heaven, whereby we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is in all and through all.
SPEAKER_00: He is before all things, and by him all things consist.
SPEAKER_00: Religion will tell you many good possible routes to God.
SPEAKER_00: But there is but one way authorized by God, and it is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's the door.
SPEAKER_00: This door is not just the door of salvation, it's the door of faith even to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Acts 14, verse 27, and when they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: It's also the door of opportunity to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 2.12.
SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, Paul says, When I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, a door was opened unto me of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 4.3, praying for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And number four, we might notice it's a door of reclamation, chapter 4 of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Again, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And after this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The door is speaking of salvation or the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want you to see.
SPEAKER_00: Before the open door of Revelation 4:1, there are open doors of opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: And the opportunity always involves the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Notice in your notes, he who opens doors.
SPEAKER_00: That's chapter 3, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: And do the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth.
SPEAKER_00: We're introduced to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, he is the holy.
SPEAKER_00: Notice him, the holy.
SPEAKER_00: He that is the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And notice he that hath the key of David.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said, you don't have to be a key man if you know who holds all the keys.
SPEAKER_00: I'm he that liveth and was dead.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, I'm alive forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And have the keys of hell and of death.
SPEAKER_00: He's the key holder.
SPEAKER_00: And by this expression, it is suggested that Jesus has exclusive power.
SPEAKER_00: He has the keys.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the expression again.
SPEAKER_00: He has the key of David.
SPEAKER_00: He can open and no man can shut.
SPEAKER_00: He can shut and no man can open.
SPEAKER_00: He has all power.
SPEAKER_00: He has all power in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He has all power in earth.
SPEAKER_00: He has all power in the underworld.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me just give you those three quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ has full authority, and his authority rests on his deity and his victory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, as the eternal Son of God, possesses inherent authority.
SPEAKER_00: But as the crucified and resurrected Redeemer, Christ possesses victory over sin, death, and hell.
SPEAKER_00: He has exclusive authority over heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's enthroned at the Father's right hand.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has full authority on earth.
SPEAKER_00: He's head over all principalities and powers.
SPEAKER_00: He has power over the underworld or hell.
SPEAKER_00: He's the conqueror of death and the holder of its keys.
SPEAKER_00: I serve a risen Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He's in the world today.
SPEAKER_00: I know that he's living, whatever men may say.
SPEAKER_00: I see his hand of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: I hear his voice of cheer.
SPEAKER_00: And just the time I need him, he's always near.
SPEAKER_00: He lives, he lives.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus lives today.
SPEAKER_00: He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
SPEAKER_00: He lives, he lives salvation to impart.
SPEAKER_00: You ask me how I know he lives.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he lives within my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ has full authority.
SPEAKER_00: He opens doors.
SPEAKER_00: And notice, secondly, notice the doors that he opens.
SPEAKER_00: The doors he opens.
SPEAKER_00: You might recognize the lady on the screen here.
SPEAKER_00: We call her Lady Liberty.
SPEAKER_00: Years ago, when immigrants sailed into New York Harbor, many arrived with nothing, no wealth, no status, no certainty about the future.
SPEAKER_00: The standing guard over New York Harbor was Lady Liberty, holding her torch beside the golden door.
SPEAKER_00: Bob Hope, the famous comedian and encouragement to American troops, immigrated to the United States in 1908.
SPEAKER_00: Bob Hope said, I landed in America with four dollars in my pocket and all my worldly possessions in a cardboard suitcase.
SPEAKER_00: Bob Hope, like many others, came with nothing but entered through a door of hope.
SPEAKER_00: In the base of the Statue of Liberty is a poem written by Ezra or Emma Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: And at the conclusion, as you see the poem here on the screen, are these famous words Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores.
SPEAKER_00: Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me.
SPEAKER_00: I lift my lamp.
SPEAKER_00: I lift my lamp beside.
SPEAKER_00: The golden door.
SPEAKER_00: That door that swung open to a land of plenty and a land of opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: I lay my lamp beside the golden door.
SPEAKER_00: There's a golden door that the Holy Spirit opens here to the Church of Philadelphia.
SPEAKER_00: The tired, the poor, the wretched refuse of this world, the spiritually impoverished, the brokenhearted, the hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, did you realize as we gather in joy and plenty today, even have into the shadow of our steeple today, people in an earthly sense that have absolutely nothing?
SPEAKER_00: I could take you five.
SPEAKER_00: Feet through the field to people who live in these woods that in an earthly sense have nothing.
SPEAKER_00: They sleep under the sign.
SPEAKER_00: They find refuge under our covered awnings.
SPEAKER_00: I could take you to the most opulent places in America, just down the street.
SPEAKER_00: Behind those gold-gilded homes are people who have every earthly advantage and have filled that God-shaped void in their hearts with pleasure and comfort and riches and houses and lands in a spiritual sense who are absolutely starving for that which money cannot buy.
SPEAKER_00: And God, in the middle of our Philadelphia, put a church.
SPEAKER_00: And that church is to say to that community, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.
SPEAKER_00: I think it'd be a good idea if we stopped sampling the soil and just did our job to sow the seed.
SPEAKER_00: Just sow the seed.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that you never preach the gospel to the wrong person?
SPEAKER_00: I love to tell the story to those who know it best.
SPEAKER_00: They seem hungry and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I love to preach the gospel to those who've heard it many times.
SPEAKER_00: But oh, to share the gospel with someone who's never heard the life-changing message that the God of heaven came into the earth he created that was marred by sin, who came to take all the mar in himself that he might return it to its past glory through the sacrifice of his own blood on the cross of Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the door of opportunity that God gives to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Years ago, my children were attending a homeschool co-op, and my wife had met some mothers that were there, and we had just started our church in New Smyrna, and we uh we met at 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoons.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how many of you like to be done with lunch and taking a nap by 2 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we didn't.
SPEAKER_00: We had church at 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: And we were inviting whomever we could, and then we'd run the bus.
SPEAKER_00: And we we probably had 30 adults and 70 little kids off a bus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we we might have had it upside down or right side up, but we were just trying to reach anybody that we possibly could.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember my wife had met this family at the co-op and invited them to our church.
SPEAKER_00: So we invited them and they came, and some of those kids maybe didn't look like church kids.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I don't even know what a church kid acts like, but maybe they didn't act like church kids.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were a little bit rowdy.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were excited about Jesus too.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not really sure what kind of ticked them off, but they came and I just noticed they were a bit uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And so the next week my wife said, Oh, thank you so much for coming to our church.
SPEAKER_00: Did your kids like the service?
SPEAKER_00: And uh she said, not really.
SPEAKER_00: Did something happen?
SPEAKER_00: No, she said, I uh I just kind of watched, I kind of watched all those kids, and she said, uh, I don't want my kids to associate those kind of kids with church people.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't I don't know who we think we are.
SPEAKER_00: But we're all just sinners saved by God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Send me your tired, you're poor, you're humbled, refused, seeking to breathe free.
SPEAKER_00: There's a door of opportunity that's opened for us in our time and another community to tell the poor and those who need the bread of life, and we need the beggars who have been transformed by the bread of life, and evangelism is one beggar telling all the other beggars where they found bread, and we found bread in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and that's our responsibility to tell the world about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This church, this door of opportunity was opened as a means of evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: There was a man years ago who walked through the door.
SPEAKER_00: His name was William Carey.
SPEAKER_00: Carey was a shoe cobbler.
SPEAKER_00: Put a big map of the world in his little shop.
SPEAKER_00: He began to pray around the world for people he never met, for a God that he so loved.
SPEAKER_00: Carrie became burdened that the gospel must be taken to all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: He was young and zealous and began to passionately urge fellow ministers to obey Christ's command to teach all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: So at the next minister's convention, he stood up and he professed his desire to reach the nations with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And there was in that meeting an older preacher who said to Kerry, young man, sit down.
SPEAKER_00: When God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine.
SPEAKER_00: Kerry could not escape the burden.
SPEAKER_00: He published his famous work, here's the title for you, An Inquiry into the obligation of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen.
SPEAKER_00: How's that for a page turner?
SPEAKER_00: He preached his historic message from Isaiah 54, in which he made the famous statement: expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.
SPEAKER_00: There was a young man in that meeting that heard Kerry present his burden.
SPEAKER_00: It was Andrew Fuller.
SPEAKER_00: And Carey said this.
SPEAKER_00: He saw an open door.
SPEAKER_00: And it was into the pit of India that William Carey lowered himself.
SPEAKER_00: There was a cultural phenomenon in India at the time called seti.
SPEAKER_00: Sethi was the Indian norm of a widow whose husband died.
SPEAKER_00: She would, as they burned his body, she would crawl upon the pyre and self-sacrifice herself with her husband.
SPEAKER_00: It was celebrated.
SPEAKER_00: It was cheered.
SPEAKER_00: It was an act of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Carrie recognized that the Hindu gods desired that men die to appease them, but he'd come to preach to the Indians there was a God who would die to appease the wrath of God so that we would not die to appease God.
SPEAKER_00: He would die so that his wrath could be appeased and we could be seen as satisfying to God.
SPEAKER_00: He lived his life in the pit.
SPEAKER_00: Had two wives die.
SPEAKER_00: One went mentally insane.
SPEAKER_00: He had children die.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was the first two or three years of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He had no public converts to the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: But a few summers ago, I was in Minneapolis with a great Christian couple from India.
SPEAKER_00: And she showed me her Indian dialectic Bible.
SPEAKER_00: She opened it up and she went to the fly leaf, and it said in the fly leaf, Scriptures translated by William Carey.
SPEAKER_00: It was William Carey that translated the Bible into nearly 44 different dialects, who made a permanent change in the midst of great darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he answered the call to the door of opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: May I just say as your pastor today, God is opening doors of opportunity to the Calvary Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: There are doors everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see them?
SPEAKER_00: There are doors everywhere to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Someone said God did not bless America merely so Christians could live comfortably.
SPEAKER_00: Can I meddle for a moment?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to cut my sermon short.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome, but anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're one of them.
SPEAKER_00: You know I found a common theme in our prayers for revival?
SPEAKER_00: Our prayers for revival typically involve God sustaining our American Republic financially, domestically, nationally.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for revival because we want to preserve our way of life.
SPEAKER_00: And when our economy goes up, we think God's hand is upon us.
SPEAKER_00: But what if the greatest need we have is not for a better economy?
SPEAKER_00: What if our greatest need is for God to destroy our economy to where the only thing we have left is God?
SPEAKER_00: Or comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Rigidly comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: But it might be the gift of persecution, the gift of need.
SPEAKER_00: Next week we'll go to the church of Laodicea, and you know what it says about them?
SPEAKER_00: It says they were rich, increased with goods, and they didn't need anything.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been to some churches and it just occurred to me, I said last week, Van Sabner said there's there's four stages to the life of a church.
SPEAKER_00: There's a man, there's a movement, the movement becomes a machine, and the machine becomes a monument.
SPEAKER_00: I've been to some churches where it appears that the Holy Spirit could totally leave that church, and it would take several months to ever figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: The machine just does its thing.
SPEAKER_00: But our greatest need is for a fresh touch from God.
SPEAKER_00: To open the door of opportunity to see what God will do.
SPEAKER_00: I hope as you work throughout this week, you'll recognize in your life doors of opportunity to preach the gospel, to share with others your faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you the last point here that is the presence of opposition, just very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 9, Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee.
SPEAKER_00: The very people, this is scary, the very people that were so close to salvation became the very people that fought salvation as it was preached.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know, if you can quote Romans chapter 10, verse 9 with me, help me out ready, Romans 10, 9, that if thou shalt confess to thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
SPEAKER_00: For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 10, 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what he said right before that?
SPEAKER_00: Now Paul is praying for his own people, the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know the Bible came because of the Jews?
SPEAKER_00: All the prophets were Jews.
SPEAKER_00: The Savior, the Lord Jesus, was born a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ as power of God or salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first.
SPEAKER_00: It came because of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: I ought not get off the highway very long here, but I just want to say there's a fine line between being objective regarding the modern state of Israel and becoming a flaming anti-Semite.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you young people need to prayerfully work your way through some of those thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things wrong in the world, but I will tell you, because the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God and the truth that we have, the heritage that we have was built on the foundation of Old Testament Judaism, we ought to have a gratitude in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So close.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them the previous verse, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine growing up so close to salvation?
SPEAKER_00: Having the language of salvation, the scriptures of salvation, to deny that Jesus Christ was the Messiah who died, was buried, and rose again, to be so close to the gate of heaven and to be unsaved.
SPEAKER_00: The word is nigh, thee, even in thy mouth, the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess thy mouth.
SPEAKER_00: But why didn't they confess with their mouth?
SPEAKER_00: Because they didn't believe in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: The church's opposition came from those so close to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Ethan and I were listening to a sermon on the way back into town this week, and the preacher referenced Joni Erickson Tata.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever seen her story Paralyzed in a swimming accident, 17 years of age, full paraplegic, paints, sings, writes, paints with a paintbrush in her mouth of quite a person.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what she said.
SPEAKER_00: She said, sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.
SPEAKER_00: Persecution came at the hands of those so close to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Persecution came, but it cannot stand against the power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because when he opens the door, no one can shut it.
SPEAKER_00: And when he closes it, no one can open it.
SPEAKER_00: One more story, and I'll be done.
SPEAKER_00: There's a famous bridge out west.
SPEAKER_00: You probably have seen the Golden Gate Bridge.
SPEAKER_00: Of all the things I got to see in California, this was not one of them.
SPEAKER_00: Someone told me not to go to San Francisco, so I obliged.
SPEAKER_00: But during its construction in the 1930s, workers were terrified of falling to their deaths.
SPEAKER_00: It's a righteous fear.
SPEAKER_00: Several, I think 19, had already died in the building of the bridge, and fear slowed the entire project.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, engineers made a costly decision to install a massive safety net beneath the bridge.
SPEAKER_00: After the net was put in place, not only were lives saved, but productivity dramatically increased.
SPEAKER_00: Men were willing to go farther to work harder to finish the task because they knew there was something holding them up if they ever were to fall.
SPEAKER_00: This church walked through an open door into a hostile world.
SPEAKER_00: Missionaries crossed the oceans, preachers endured persecution, faithful believers gave their lives because they believed that Christ held the keys.
SPEAKER_00: They understood something that we must not forget: that the one who opens the door is always the one who holds his people.
SPEAKER_00: William Carey, as we heard, went down to a pit because someone held the rope.
SPEAKER_00: Those bridge workers finished the span because they trusted the net beneath them.
SPEAKER_00: And the church can finish its mission because Jesus Christ said, I set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.
SPEAKER_00: The task is unfinished.
SPEAKER_00: The door is still open.
SPEAKER_00: The question is not whether Christ is faithful to finish his work.
SPEAKER_00: The question is whether we will walk through the door by faith before it closes.
SPEAKER_00: And there is a net.
SPEAKER_00: Calvary, listen, there's a net under the Calvary Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever feel it?
SPEAKER_00: Boy, it would be great if we walked through that door.
SPEAKER_00: I know, Pastor, but it'd be great if we restarted some things that have had been closed.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be great?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but but wait, there's a net holding us up.
SPEAKER_00: I've set before thee an open door.
SPEAKER_00: And no man can shut it.
SPEAKER_00: You know what my prayer is on this Memorial Day weekend?
SPEAKER_00: That God will stir in us to walk through the open door.
SPEAKER_00: To trust God by faith.
SPEAKER_00: May we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come to you today in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You are the God who holds all the keys.
SPEAKER_00: Our life is in your hands.
SPEAKER_00: You have ultimate authority over our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, you're opening doors for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, not just corporately, but individually for all of us as we leave this place today, there are doors of opportunity to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: They're everywhere around us.
SPEAKER_00: Faith, a lack of faith, and fear, and maybe the past that so afflicts us and assaults our minds with all the could-have-bens and weren'ts and all the doubts that we all face and struggle with.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, that net that holds us up, the promise of Christ, that you can open things that cannot be shut, and you will shut things that cannot be opened.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to walk by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to live by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I pray, I do pray for our country today.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for our leadership today.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I think in all of our hearts there is a diminishing lack of trust in those that we vote to govern us.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't look to them.
SPEAKER_00: We look to the rock of ages.
SPEAKER_00: We find our strength in thee.
SPEAKER_00: And as all these things come together, help us not to trust the economy or to trust the things that we see.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, Lord, to place our trust in you.
SPEAKER_00: The author and finisher of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Look to you today, Lord Jesus, we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand together quickly as we begin the hymn of invitation.
SPEAKER_00: And that Ethan begins to sing.
SPEAKER_00: If God has spoken to our hearts today, we can come.
SPEAKER_00: Let's sing it together.
SPEAKER_01: There the Son of God gave his life for us, and our measure list dead was ready together.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus to you we lift our Jesus our glory and our price.
SPEAKER_01: We adore you, behold you, our Savior ever.
SPEAKER_01: True.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We turn our eyes to you.
SPEAKER_00: Just a moment we'll be dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be in the lobby.
SPEAKER_00: I would love to encourage you and pray with you there.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here today and you're hearing the gospel, and you just have some questions.
SPEAKER_00: I just encourage you at the end of the service, uh, reach out to someone.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be in the back and others as well.
SPEAKER_00: And uh get those questions answered.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look to Christ uh in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look to Christ and uh, as the song said, we turn our eyes to the Lord Jesus and we find healing in Him.
SPEAKER_00: We see it for just a moment, he's gonna come.
SPEAKER_00: And we will have church tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's a holiday weekend, uh, but we're