CHRIST, AS THE OPENER OF THE DOOR
Rev. 3:7
Morning Meditation 9/26/17
There are some doors that are so secured and locked that one will never get through the door unless someone opens it. Our text speaks of such a door and the One who opens it.
"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;"
In this verse Jesus tells the "angel of the church in Philadelphia" that He will open the door and no man can prevent Him from doing it, and He can shut the door and no man can open it. I believe that this is the door to missions, and the winning of the lost to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The Church that reaches its community and through missions takes the gospel around the world, will have to have Jesus as their coworker. It is not a commercial job. It is Spiritual work and Jesus cannot be by-passed in this operation. If it is one thing that the Church of our day needs to re-learn is that Jesus is the Head of the Church, and only when He is recognized as such, and we are empowered by Him can we be successful. Jesus is not in a numbers game. He offers the gospel to the world, and He does this through His church. A man can hear and receive Him as Saviour or they can reject Him and suffer the consequences in an eternal lake of fire. One can reject Jesus but he cannot reject the consequences of rejecting Him. I want to call your attention to some doors that Jesus opens today.
HE OPENS THE UNSAVED PERSONS EYES TO SEE HIMSELF A SINNER
Isaiah 42:6-7, "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house."
How can one ask for a more compassionate Saviour than the LORD. He says, "I have called thee in righteousness." The LORD will not call one in unrighteousness. God's calls are always through Jesus God's only begotten Son so that the one responding to the call is cleansed from sin and given the righteousness of Christ which is perfect. Lets look:
1. First there is the cleansing. To be cleansed, one much acknowledge his need of cleansing. Isaiah 43:25, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
2. Then there is given the imputed righteousness of Christ. Romans 5:17, "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
Man is a sinner and he is blind to his condition. It takes Christ to remove that blindness or he will never be saved. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." Next,
CHRIST AS THE DELIVERER, OPENS THE PRISON HOUSE OF SIN
Man does not realize that he is in prison and he cannot get out of that prison apart from Christ opening the door and setting him free. Isaiah says in 42:7: the LORD promises "to bring out the prisoners from the prison."
The walls of the prison house of sin have made the prisoners so secure in that prison that it is out of the question for them to attempt to escape on their own. Jesus is the only one who can help in this situation. The thing that is so amazing to believers in Christ, we see these Spiritual truths that the unsaved cannot see. They are so simple to us, we think, "How dumb can you get?" We want our lost friends to see. God has put His love in our hearts for them and we know that they can't be saved without seeing these truths. What we do, is that we forget how blind we were before we were saved. We were in their exact same position.
What is the answer to this difficult question? Prayer is a key to the salvation of the lost. Read in Acts 1 about the prayer meeting of the church before Pentecost. Then go on through the book of Acts and you will discover that much TIME was spent in prayer in the interest of evangelism. These men knew that only God could open the eyes of men who have been blinded by sin. This is the reason that Jesus said in John 6:65, "And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.."
Prayer in the winning of the lost whether in our own community, or on the foreign mission field, needs to be the result of much diligent agonizing prayer. What would you do, if your house was on fire and your child was in it, and it was possible for an experienced fireman to get your child out? Would you just calmly say to the firemen, "My child is in there. When you get around to it, would you get him/her out? The reaching and saving your child would have your undivided attention. Prayer can make a difference in the genuine conversion of souls in our community and through our missionaries that we support financially and prayerfully. I personally have prayer cards of missionaries taped all over my filing cabinet besides which I do my morning Bible reading and prayer. I go through each prayer card and pray individually for each missionary and family. One cannot be saved unless the Lord opens the door of one's eyes to see his lost condition and the truth of the gospel. The missionaries need our diligent prayer for the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing the unsaved to Christ. Next,
JESUS OPENS THE HEART SO THAT WE CAN RECEIVE HIM AS POSSESSOR
Does Jesus possess your heart. Salvation is a matter of the heart and service is also a matter of the heart. Romans 10:10 says, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The word heart is used by the Lord to show us that the heart is involved in believing to the salvation of the soul. Some have said that heart means mind. And that the heart is not able to believe or disbelieve. Why don't we just stay with the Bible and the words the Bible uses? This is not the only place modern man has problems believing Bible terminology.
One of the difficult passages for men of science to believe is in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." They can explain this with their sophistry but they get into trouble believing when the LORD tells us how He did it in Psalms 33:6, "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." Then again in Psalms 33:9, "For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." Does God say that He spoke the world into existence or what!!!?
So trusting Christ must be a matter of the heart. Salvation and service is not just accepting academic truth. The man who explains God has to be greater than the god he explains. God is unexplainable. He is bigger than can be defined. In fact, one of the words that describe an attribute of God is omniscience. This means He knows all things and there is absolutely nothing He does not know. That brings us to the word Faith. Faith believes what God says without necessarily God explaining it. God says it and we believe that He knows what He is talking about. Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." We need to allow God to possess our hearts. We believe that God is a loving merciful God and that we can trust time and eternity to Him. We believe that every thing that happens to us is allowed by Him and since He loves us He will make things that seem bad, work for our good and His glory. This truth is found in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Next,
CHRIST OPENS OUR UNDERSTANDING BY ILLUMINATING THE SCRIPTURES
This is like going through the door into God's reading room. We have God's revelation in the Bible. It is the inerrant, verbally, inspired Word of God. One can get a dictionary and commentaries and still come short in understanding the Scriptures. We do not only need revelation we also need illumination. Lord, what did you mean in this passage of Scripture? He may illuminate our understanding or He may not. Jesus said to His disciples in John 16:12, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Then He followed that statement with this in John 16:13, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." The Holy Spirit is our ultimate teacher of Scripture.
When Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, in the upper room, we read that "He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." (see Luke 24:32,45). Jesus will do that for us today through the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit if we will let Him. Remember this. He speaks to faith, not to our ability to understand like an unsaved man would. I believe exactly what He says whether I ever understand the meaning. It may be a statement that contradicts the science books. That doesn't bother me a bit. I believe God. The fact is that the Bible never contradicts true science. But it does contradict the explanations and the conclusions of scientists.
JESUS HAS OPENED THE DOOR TO THE RESOURCES OF HEAVEN
Have you discovered that God has promised to supply all your needs? Philippians 4:19, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." This is a glorious promise. Do you believe this promise? This is not a promise for us after we arrive in heaven. It is a promise that covers the NOW of life today.
Paul says in Ephesians 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" The word "Blessed" means, "to God be praised.." The words "hath blessed us" is an aorist active participle. The aorist tense means at a point of time in the past. That goes back to the time we were saved. God took our needs over and opened heaven's door to us to come in believing prayer and receive the supply that is ours. When we were saved we came into an inheritance. Some of that inheritance is ours for use today. The "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" are things that belong to us for use today.. How much is dealt with in the word "all." The kind of blessings are described by the word "spiritual." This means, "Spirit supplied blessings." The words "heavenly places" describe where they come from. There are two worlds existing side by side. One you can see with your physical eyes. The other you can only see by faith. We are told in Hebrews 11:27, "By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, AS SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE." (Parenthesis mine).
Faith can reach into the invisible Spiritual world and bring things in the visible world to the wonderment of people who do not know the Lord. That is the world we as Christians belong to. It became our world when we were born again of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is the Opener of these doors. All of them are impossible to open except through Christ. Others will never get beyond the door unless they repent of their sins and put their trust in Jesus as their Saviour. He welcomes them. His arms are outstretched in love beckoning them to come to Him for salvation. The choice is theirs. He has made it possible through His suffering on the cross. May God bless these words to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
