Revelation Chapter 3
VERSE 20 continued “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me.”
“Unknown to the Laodicean Church (the nominally professing part), the Lord has returned. He stands at the door. He could not do this if he were not present. He has not been always there as some think. To Sardis he said, "I will come"; to Philadelphia, "I come quickly"; to Laodicea, it is rap, rap, rap. Awake; let me come in.
Do they hear?
`Song of Solomon 5:3`, gives the answer.
“I have taken off my robe; How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; How can I defile them?”
Why has this little company had such a continuous feast of truth? Why does the light and glory stream down upon us in ever increasing brightness?
It is because the Master has come in, and has girded himself, and made us sit down, and has himself served us. It is because the Sun of Righteousness has arisen, and those on the mountain and on the house-tops are already bathed in its glorious beams, for
"The glory of the sunlight
Of the bright Millennial day,
Scatters all the powers of darkness;
Lights the gloom with healing ray."
"If any man hear my voice." There is nothing here said about being deaf. If they had been awake, they would surely have heard. Jesus clearly foretold that he would come as a thief, but did not tell them the hour. His orders were simply, "Watch." They failed, and fell. "If the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through." He slept on guard.
While the nominal Church is still seemingly in power, while the old glory still hangs about her, while it is still respectable and honorable to be a church member (it will not be so long, in the eyes of many), the little flock of truth-seekers are despised and rejected (they are cast out as false teachers and deceivers). They are covered with reproach because they dare to point out the faults of a worldly church. They are looked down upon by her who sits as a proud queen, lifted up that she may have the greater fall.
The decree has gone forth; the fall has begun; while "to him that over-comes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne."
The nominal Church has a vague idea of a kind of throne (composed principally of white cloud) somewhere, beyond the bounds of time and space, in the third heaven (counting upwards) where they shall sit forever; principally engaged in making music, and reigning (?) over their own passions (their passions being buried out of sight with their bodies). Strange work for eternity. Gods agents, as far as we can see, are always in activity.
Christ does not always sit on the Fathers throne; he has one of his own. He will occupy it. And those who have followed him, by the way of the cross, shall share it with him.
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." (R505)
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