While The Door Is Open

“I know thy words. Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”—Revelation 3:8

There is still an open door in this church age in which we are living. We thank God for this and take courage, and with strong desire we want to enter it. It will not be open long. The time when the Laodicean period of the church age will cause our Lord to spew the professing church out of His mouth is very close at hand, if not already closing in around us. When we read the following verses from His lips our hearts tremble because we see the picture in nearly all its features all around us: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither could nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with good, and have need of nothing; and knewst not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Well may we thank God that the spewing time has not arrived just yet, and that the door is open.

The Reason

I believe the door is still open, and we have a little spiritual strength in these days, because of the expression which immediately follows in the text—namely, because “thou hast kept my word, and has not denied my name.”

Praise God for preachers and people today who keep God’s Word, and will not give it up even if scholars and critics howl above the winds about its fallibility. These faithful ones keep it, too, in the sense that with all their given-up wills and hearts they will walk by the light of it and separate from the world, the people and the devil which it reveals. There are a crowd today scattered through the great professing church who have seen God’s plan in His Word and His program, and are ordering their lives, their business and all their connections according to that program. They are the salt of the religious crowd with whom they have to be identified. They are considered behind the times, but they have an open door and a little strength, and they are leading others through the door and into the light.

His Name

He says “and hast not denied my name.” Now, God is very particular about His name. He brought some mighty things to pass to show His people His name, and that He would live up to His name. He talked with Abraham, and told Abraham that He was the all-sufficient God. On the strength of the names God gave to Himself He made His promises to Abraham, and his children forever. Those who keep God’s Word believe that all those promises made to the Jews will be kept. God promised them the Holy Land forever, and those who keep His Word believe they will yet have it, and that God will move the nations in His hands until these children of Abraham get this same land.

Jesus’ name was King of the Jews. This was written in three languages above His cross when He died, and God’s hand kept it from being changed. He is coming to rule them. His name is the Son of David. He will sit on David’s throne.

All In A Name

Whatever God has planned to do through Jesus is included in some one of the names given to Jesus. Here’s a verse where God gives a name and a reason for the name. An angel of the Lord appears unto Joseph, saying: “Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20–21).

When you deny any of the things Jesus came to do, or is coming to do, or that He is coming, you deny one of the names of Jesus. He is a prophet; therefore the prophets spoke His words. He is priest. It is His own blood which gives access to God and remission of sin. He is King. He is coming back again. The various divisions of these three aspects of His work are also given in a name. For instance, His death meant righteousness for us, so He is called “the Lord Our Righteousness.” His victory over death gave Him His seat at the Father’s right hand, and He becomes our life. His coming back to Earth will bring peace, so He is “the Prince of Peace.” Let us keep His Word and not deny His name, and if we do He will open the door that no man can shut.

A Door Of Escape Needed

I remember when I first saw Niagara Falls, how the thundering of the falling tons of water moved my soul, and how when I tried to sleep that night I could still hear in my dreams the falling and the rushing and roar of the rapids. I tried to forget it, and for weeks after I had seen it, the roar would come to me through the day. A voice would seem to say: “I am still rushing, rushing, roaring on, and have done so through the years and years before you saw me. I will go on in my wild, mad rush.” I felt as if I wanted to get the thing out of my mind by turning it back into the lake, or turning its course around another way to get away from the roar. But what will you do if you ever get a vision of the Niagara of lost souls, going over, going over, going over, through the years on and on? Oh, you will cry out: “My God, is there nothing to stop sin? Must this stream of lost souls forever flow? Is there no stop to it in Your plan?”

His Plan

Oh, how glad you will be then to have Him show you His Word—His promises. How you will roll them under the tongue of your soul and keep them close to your crying heart of agony for the lost. How your soul will shout when you see that He is coming back as a dam to stop forever the stream of lost souls. You had heard men argue that we were getting better, and that the stream would dry up; but every time you picked up the paper, the roar of the crowd going over was louder and you could not believe the empty arguments of devil-doped optimists. Every time you went into the packed streets or walked among the crowd the roar of the falling stunned your senses. They are going over now. Oh, surely men would go crazy at the tragedy if they dared look at it as God looks at it, as He lets those look at it who have looked at Him. They can stand it only because they know He is coming back.

His Provisions

You will love His name when you see the provisions in it. You will rejoice that He has been raised far above all principalities and powers, and seated above every name that is named, and that all power is given unto Him, both in heaven and in earth, and that He is coming soon to execute all that power and authority. You will not deny His so great name, but you will go to the lost in His powerful name and tell them the wonderful Gospel. Then you will watch and pray for His return to stop the stream of dying sinners. Thank God, we don’t have to wait until men by reform measures and culture systems put an end to sinning. But He will come back to rule with a rod of iron and put an end to this awful stream of death and hell. Oh, how the souls of those who keep His Word and do not deny His name come forth in praise of Him who has the keys of death and hades.

If You Deny

If we deny Him there is no name given under heaven or among men that can even touch the stream of death to stop it. If we deny Him there is no power or name given under heaven or among men that can stop sin. Deny Him and your soul falls back helpless, without strength against death and sin. The world has taken the inventions of men and with them lighted and heated their homes and run their homes and run their cars and trains and wheels of manufacture. But the world refuses to take the light of the world, the bread of life, the victor over death, and crown Him King. But to as many now “as received Him to them gave He authority to become the sons of God, even to as many as believe on His name.”

Authority Given

Soon from the glory He will call to Himself all those to whom He has given this authority, and these sons of God will arise to meet Him and reign with Him when He returns to put sin out of the world. We are to serve Him when we return, and can you picture higher bliss to a saved soul than working with Him damming this stream of death and hell forever?

Gathering Material

His plan now is gathering material for this dam that will stop the awful stream of lost souls. God is not checking sin now in the lives of men of sin and a world of sin. Therefore there is no peace in the world. There can never be peace in the world until sin has been put down, and sin cannot be put out by men, or all the works of men. Only Jesus conquered sin, and only Jesus can give victory over sin. In the age in which we live He is gathering out a people for Himself who will take by faith His victory over sin and over death. These faithful ones, who have become sons of God by faith, made free from sin by His precious blood, and given eternal life by Him, are to rule with Him when He comes back to Earth. These are the material He is gathering out for rulership in the millennium. These are the dam material that will stop the flood of Niagara, roaring with lost souls going over into outer darkness. He knows His material. He says “thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things.” To another He gives rulership over ten cities, etc. Then we can hear a redeemed earth singing under the rule of Jesus Christ our Lord and His bride.

“Jesus, the name high over all,
 In hell or earth or sky;
Angels and men before it fall,
And devils fear and fly.

“Jesus, the name to sinners dear:
The name to sinners given;
It scatters all their guilty fear;
It turns their hell to heaven.

“Jesus the prisoners, fetters breaks,
And bruises Satan’s head;
Power into strengthless souls He speaks
And life into the dead.

“Jesus, who comes to rule a world, 
And banish death and sin,
Oh, come and end this awful night,
And that new day begin.”

The Head

Jesus is the Head of the Church, which is His body. Our Head is in glory now, and the body is on Earth. It is easy to see that if the body on Earth becomes weak it is because the connection with the head has been disturbed. In the text this feebleness is indicated by saying “thou hast a little strength.” The weakness has come through lack of faith in His Word and His name in these awful days. Men who call themselves Christians have lost the fire of faith in a risen and glorified Lord and are trying to reduce Christianity from abiding life in a glorified Savior to a religious system.

It is faith—vital faith in our risen and all-conquering Lord—that keeps the strength in the body on Earth. All attacks now are not to frighten believers, not to imprison them, not even to make fun of them, but the system of Satan today is to substitute words of men for God’s own Bible, and to so criticize His Word as to make those who are not apt at argument to feel their ardor waning, and finally ask the question “Is the Bible really all God’s Book?”

Gazing As Eve

The weak one looks at the so-called errors that the unbeliever who professes to believe is holding up to view from his distorted and proud platform of superior learning. You see by this looking or gazing at so-called error held up by enemies he falls from his faith, as Eve fell from Eden. He finds himself belonging to the Christian church, singing Christian hymns, and yet not keeping His words. He doubts the miracles and doubts the virgin birth, then the resurrection, and, though he names Christ’s name, he is now without a Christ. For the Christ of God is, by His own words to John on Patmos, “He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore.” This soul settles down into what is called a church, where Christ is talked about, but he finds himself without life or hope—not a keeper of Christ’s words, but a follower of some professor, and denying the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. He comes under God’s heading “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” It is such as these we are asked to cooperate with in these awful days. The worst saloonkeeper in town is not half so much the enemy of our blessed Lord as these very ones.

Like Judas

They call His name, like Judas, and kiss Him. This is the way they kiss him: They say “Jesus was a good man and a great genius. His teachings were, most of them, above the men of His time. He would greatly change them if He had lived in our day.” What more horrible stab could they give? They are worse than the Jews who crucified Him for they openly yelled “Crucify Him!” but these speak sweet words about Him and chloroform Him and repeat as they do it “God’s in His heaven; all’s right with the earth.” Then they sing a hymn with all the blood and Gospel out of it, and dismiss the hearers.

To them there is no open door. The grave has no victory. They laugh at the idea of Satan while he binds their eyes. They speak of sin as selfishness, and unselfishness as salvation, while the leprosy of sin is eating away at their souls. Do you not see that this latter-day doubt and denial are the best of Satan’s tools against “The faith one for all delivered to the fathers”?

New Attack

This attack could not be made in days before, for education had not taken the world by storm, and the millions of dollars were not being so quickly made that could be put behind its onward swift plunge. But education now from its get-rich-quick throne cries for natural religion, and laughs to scorn all supernatural religion and everything miraculous, and doubt is having its day. Because of this day of doubt, this laugh, this haughty passing by the old faith with lifted spirits, thousands have turned from God’s Word to join the crowd in unbelief and become deniers of His name. As the faith of many weakens they join the ranks of those who are “rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,” and they know not that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor and blind and naked,” because they have lost their faith in Jesus Christ the Lord.

Oh, let your faith flame up today in our risen and glorified Savior and our coming King. Get alone with Him and let the connection between Himself, The Head, and you, a part of His body, that as you come from the place of prayer, you may be running over with His own life.

Faith in Him will glow and you will know He is saying to you “I know thy works; behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”

“Our fathers, chained in prisons dark,
Were still in heart and conscience free.
How sweet would be their children’s fate
If they, like them, could die for Thee!
Faith of our fathers! Holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death!”