McNeil, William: Ministry From The Revelation 38 ~ Rev 3;

You who were present here on Friday evening will remember that our brother brought us a very interesting, provocative message based on Revelation chapter seven. If you weren't here, you missed it. But having listened to what he had to say from Revelation seven, I decided to go into the book of Revelation today, and I want you to turn up your Bibles, if you have them with you, and I trust you have, to Revelation chapter three. Revelation chapter three. Our main text for today will be verse twenty. Let us read that first, and then we'll read the context. The text is found verse twenty. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me. That will be the text. Now let us read the context, starting at verse fourteen. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. 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 cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. Anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Lord, bless to us, I'm sure, the reading of the scriptures. Let us bow for a moment of prayer. Our Father, we turn instinctively to thee, having read from the Holy Scriptures. We would ask of thee now that our hearts may be quietened in thy presence, that our ears may be open to hear the word, that today thy son shall be glorified, some fresh trophy may be laid at his feet. We ask thee, O God, to look down in mercy upon everyone present in this gathering now. Thou knowest each need. So we pray that out of the storehouse of thy mercy, thou will pour out that needed blessing. Take our thanks now and bless us for the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen. Some years ago, I was holding a gospel campaign in certain town and was going around the doors inviting the people to come along to the special meetings. And I recall one place I got to and knocked the door, and a little girl came to the door and she shouts back in, mommy, there's a man at the door. There's a man at the door. Of course, the lady wanted to know who it was, and she came up. But the moment that little girl said these words, there's a man at the door, somehow or another, my mind went to Revelation chapter three. Now, suppose you were in your home, you dear ladies, because most of the men are out working, although some places that the ladies go out to work now and the men become house husbands. I didn't know what that meant for a long time, but I've learned since. But suppose the men are out and the ladies are in, and someone shouts to you, there's a man at the door. The first thing you want to know, who is he? Then the next thing you want to know is, what does he want? Sometimes you go to the door and find out. Some ways, of course, people have an idea that they don't need to go to the door. I remember going to one door and, uh, ringing the bell, but it was an upstairs flat. And I was sure I heard sounds, but nobody came to answer. But I suddenly noticed this woman has been very wise, either she or her husband. They had a window right up there, and they had a mirror inside the window. I'm not suggesting you should do this, I'm only telling you what I saw. She had that mirror, and she could come along to the landing there at the top of the stair, and all she had to do was look in that mirror, and she would see who was standing on the step down there at the door. If it was someone she wasn't interested in, she didn't need to come down the steps. She stayed up there and didn't answer the door. Of course, I suppose if it was someone with uniform on, like a policeman or something like that, she would very soon come down. Someone with some authority, but it was a stranger, she didn't require to come down. And then I remember another door, I rang the bell, and the voice said, who is it? Just speak into the knocker there, and I'll hear you. Ah. Her husband was very smart. He had fixed up some sort of gadgetry whereby she could stay in the kitchen, and when the doorbell was ringing, she could speak through, she just pressed the button, she could speak through, and the man on the step could hear her voice, and he was supposed to answer and identify himself, tell her who he was, then she decided whether she'd come to the door or not. Or she could say, no, sir, I don't want brushes today. I'm sorry, you can go, or, you know, whatever he was trying to sell. I've got a good vacuum cleaner, and I don't want any more demonstrations. She could answer from the kitchen. But I'm not suggesting that we put up any of those gadgets today. We've come here to a scripture, and there's a man at the door. I don't want you to put up any mirrors to try and find out whether you'll answer or not. I want you to realize who's at the door. Who is this person? Behold, I am at the door. If you started to read your Bible right from Genesis, and you read it right through to the book of the Revelation, you discover this, that throughout the whole Bible there is the presentation of a person. If you could take that person out of the Bible, you'd have nothing left. It would be a meaningless book. But get that person in the right place, and you'll understand what the Bible is teaching. Some years ago, two preachers were sitting in a room in a house away up in Boston, and the children were coming running out and in, and they were disturbing these two theologians in their meditations, you know, they were discussing heavy matter, and the children were disturbing them a little, and so the father of the children said, now look here, I- I- I'll- I'll deal with them. So he went and he gave them a jigsaw puzzle. He says, now you- you children go in next room, and he says, just content yourself and see if you can work out that jigsaw puzzle. Well, some of you know, you don't just work out a jigsaw puzzle in a few minutes. And when he got them out, he turned to the other man, he said, that will keep them for a long time. He said, that is one of the most difficult jigsaw puzzles you could get. It's a map of the world. It wasn't long until the were in and said, we've done it. We looked at him, we said, how, how, how, how did you manage it so soon? They said, oh, we discovered something, that on the back of the jigsaw puzzle, there's a picture of a man, and we just put the man together and turned it over. There it is. You've found the Bible very difficult, haven't you? And you know the reason, because you haven't found the man. If you find the man and put him in his right place, get the man right, and you'll understand what the Bible is teaching. There's a man at the door. That man is found revealed from Genesis right through to Revelation. And especially when you come to this book of the Revelation, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the man. And you know, as you read through this final book in the Bible, it is the capstone, you know, of the whole structure. If you think of the Bible as a pyramid, well, here's that little pyramid right on top, reaches right up to the top. It's a presentation of Jesus Christ, and in this book, he's presented to us as the returning Christ. You see that even in chapter one, again in chapter three, and again in chapter twenty two. he's coming back. Behold, I come quickly. I will come, and every eye shall see me. He's coming. Not only so, he's presented to us as the risen Christ. Most people believe that he was born at Bethlehem, although there are a few skeptics who try to deny that. Most people believe that he was born, and I think the majority of people who believe that he was born believe that he died at Calvary. And I think most of them will believe that he was buried in Joseph's tomb, but there's a few people who don't believe that he rose again. A lot of religious people don't believe that he rose again. But I want to remind you of this, that the resurrection of Christ is one of the foundation stones of the gospel message. It's how Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, how he was buried, and how he was raised again the third day according to the scriptures. And here in the book of Revelation, he's presented to us as the person who is risen again. He says, I am he that liveth and became dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. He lives in the power of an indissoluble life. He's presented to us as the risen Christ, the one who conquered death and rose in triumph from the tomb. But as you near the end of the book of the Revelation, you discover there that he's presented to us as the renewing Christ. You know, we're, we're hearing an awful lot these days about the need for renewal. In religious circles, they're talking about renewal. I think it's something else to need there, but we'll leave that at the moment. And in the political sphere, they're talking about renewal. Just vote for me, and you know, and I'll do this for you, and I'll see you get a new road in your section, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. One old woman said, these, these politicians are very promising men. They promise you anything, but they don't always keep the promises. They're not able. But the Lord Jesus Christ is the renewing one. He's going to make all things new. That will be a wonderful day when we see all the new things, when sin will be wiped out, and everything will be for God's glory. But not only so, this book, the book of Revelation, presents this person as the ruling one. There will come a day when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and his Christ. And Jehovah shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. No one will take it from him. No one will vote him out. No one will be able to overthrow him. He shall rule and reign. You often sing about it, Jesus shall reign where'er the sun doth his successive journeys run. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more. Yes, he's presented to us as the returning one. He's presented to us as the risen one. He's presented to us as the renewing one. He's presented to us as the ruling one. But when we come back to Revelation chapter three and our text, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. He's presented here to us as the rejected one. One of the greatest mysteries is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, the upholder of all things by the word of his power, came to this earth and was rejected. Rejected. You see, the Word of God declares the same writer whom God used to write the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, is the man who wrote the fourth gospel, called the Gospel According to John, and he is the one who tells us that Christ came unto his own, came to his own, and his own received him not. His own received him not. What a, what a mystery. You know, if you were to go visiting, suppose you decided that you had a relative, a friend that you hadn't seen for a long time, and you decided to go on a visit, and you arrived at the door. You presented yourself as a surprise. And your relative came to the door and opened the door and saw you and just slammed the door on your face and shouted from behind the door, go away, I don't want to see you. You're not welcome. How would you feel? May I suggest to you, dear folks, today, suppose one day one of your family walked out on you. Son or daughter. They walked out, turned their back on you after all you've done for them. You nursed them from the day they were born. You fed them, you clothed them, you did everything for them, you educated them. One day they walked out, and off they went, and you didn't know where. Or perhaps you heard stories about them, but you didn't know what to do. Suppose that person returns sometime, and they returned in rags and tatters and in shame, like the prodigal when he came back to his father. May I suggest you would shed a tear, but it would be a tear of joy mingled with grief, and you would take the man. I knew a dear man who was in business, and he had a son who practically ruined him three times over. One day somebody came to him and said, Charlie, you know where your son John is? He says, I've got no idea. I don't know where he is now, whether he's in jail or where he is. And they said, we saw him. We'll tell you where you can find him. We'll tell you the time to go and where you'll see him. And they told him, and he and his wife took off and they went to the city. They parked the car and they went to a certain point. They said it's here, he's supposed to pass here at a certain time. While they're waiting for him and waiting to see if they could see their son, the only thing they saw was an old man came down and went in behind some pillars of a building, just as if he was looking for a place for the night, you know, pulled up. And after a time, the son didn't turn up, and Charlie turned to his wife and says, we've waited long enough, it's nearly midnight, we better go home. She says, you know, I think I'll go across to that old man in there and I'll give him the price of a bed, and he can go and find a bed in some lodging house for the night. He says, it's a shame an old man should have to sleep out there. And he told me, he says, when he went round, he went round the back of this pillar, and he thought he was going to see an old man. And when he struck the old fellow this out into this tubing, here it was his son, John. He says, I just looked at him and said, oh my God. Oh John, what are you doing like this? He says, I got him up and I put him in the car. We brought him home and I put him right in the bathroom and I stripped him and I scrubbed him and burned his clothes and put him in a nice, warm, comfortable bed. Ah, that's how we treat them. Even those that have treated us with the worst, we take them in. What about the Lord Jesus Christ? The best who ever walked on this earth. No one liked him. The sinless, peerless, heartless Son of God, who came to seek and to save that which was lost. Behold, behold, he says, I stand at the door and knock, waiting for someone to open the door. Not you. If you begin to go through the history as is given in the Word of God, it's an amazing thing. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. And as he came to his own nation, he came to his own people. His own people didn't want him, they despised him. He was a man of sorrows, acquainting himself with grief, despised and rejected of men. His own people wouldn't take him. The leaders were against him. The Pharisees and the Sadducees condemned him. They wanted to get rid of him. Dunder and Calvary's cross, they crucified him. Said, we have no king but Jesus. Let this man be crucified, and they reviled him. Mocked him. They put him out. No place for him amongst his own people. That was bad enough. So when I come here to the book of Revelation in chapters two and three, there are seven letters within the space of those two chapters, seven letters sent to seven representative churches. Starting with the church at Ephesus and finishing with the church at Laodicea. And when you come to this final aspect of church life, here's a group of people professing his name, professing to be Christians, a church, a religious group, and Christ is outside the door. He's, he's not even in the midst. Now remember, he made a promise. Where two or three have gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. So it's obvious they were not gathered together in his name, or he would have been in the midst. Here's a religious group of people, and they've got him outside. He says, I counsel thee, buy from me. Heaven's representative standing at the door. You wouldn't treat anyone else like this. You wouldn't treat the president like this. You wouldn't treat your senators like this. You wouldn't treat anybody else like this. Yet here's the Christ of God. Room for pleasure, room for business, but for Christ the crucified, not a place that he can enter in the heart for which he died. What a shame. The person, the greatest person this world has ever known. When he was born, you remember there'd no place for him in the inn. Oh, if that man who owned that inn had only known, if he had only known who it was that would be born that night, I'm sure he would have given him the best place in the inn. But no, he had other people there back then. You can go round there and where we keep the animals, and you get plenty of straw there, you know, and it might be a little bit private. Yeah. No room in the inn when he was born. He just had the cobwebs for his curtains and straw for his mattress. You wouldn't do that to a child these days. That's all he had. And Mary, being poor, just wrapped him in swaddling bands, laid him in the manger. There's no place for the Christ of God when he was born. The people who where he had been brought up in Nazareth had no time for him when he preached his first sermon there. You find that in Luke chapter four. they chased him out of Nazareth. We're going to push him over the brow of the hill. They didn't like his preaching. And they wouldn't like it today if he was here again. The nation didn't want him. Ah, but to think, the people professing to be a church didn't want him. How's that? But I like to think of his patience. The Lord is very patient, you know? Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And knock. Maybe that you don't have, uh, the responsibility of knocking doors for any reason at all, but I do know that you, you use the telephone a lot, don't you? Perhaps some people use it more than they should, but still. A woman phoned me up the other day. I said, where are you, where are you calling me from? Some place in Texas. I said, that's long distance, isn't it? Yeah. I said, that's a long way to phone me. I said, what do you want? What can I do for you? So she started rattling it off, you know, whether she was reading it or whether she'd memorized that, I don't know. I said, I think you phoned the wrong person. She says, how's that? So I said, oh, she said, I'm sorry, sir. You see, if you were phoning, though, and you knew who you were phoning, how long and how often would you let it ring? Hm? Three times? Four times? You might let it go seven times, wouldn't you? I know she's in, but it's funny how she's not answering me. How long and how often would you knock at a door? First time, second time a little louder. Third time you might bang on. No reply, and walk away and be done. You see, sometimes you could think of this, patience is a virtue. And the Lord says, behold, I stand at the door and continuing to knock. That's the thought of it. I'm going to ask you right now, how often and how long has the Lord been knocking at your door? How often has he knocked? It may be that he called you in sorrow and pain. You know, the Lord knocks in different ways. Oh, here, of course, he's knocking, it would seem, at the door of the church, but his voice comes in and he's saying, if anyone will hear my voice, anyone. It's obvious that the churches refused to hear him, so he says, is there anyone? He narrows it down to the individual. Reminds me of this, that for these seven letters to the seven churches, there is repeated this word, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. It's said to each one of them. He that has an ear, let him hear. See, having an ear is the ability to hear. Let him hear. There's a responsibility to listen. Some people have ears, but they don't use them. They don't listen. For instance now, suppose you turn on the radio or the television, whatever it may be, and you go about your kitchen and you do your work. You hear the sound all right, don't you? You, you hear the thing going on. Then someone comes running in and says to you, hey, did you hear what that man said over the radio just now at the news? Yeah. Why? What did he say? Well, when you have it on, didn't you hear it? Yeah, I, I have the sound all right, but uh, what did he say? You weren't listening. You see, you heard the thing all right, you heard the sound, but not, you weren't paying attention. You didn't listen. He that heareth is he that inclineth the ear to listen. The Lord said, verily, verily, that's truly, truly, which is double stamp on it. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word. And that's the thought of listening, inclining the ear with intent to pay attention. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. And the sad, sad thing today, my friend, in this twentieth century is that those who profess to be churches are not prepared to listen to what the Spirit has to say from that book. This week, I had occasion to attend a funeral. You don't like attending funerals, I know that, neither do I, but I've got to attend an awful lot of them. This week, I wasn't responsible for the funeral, but I had to attend it because of husband that died and knew some of the relatives. We got into this place with quite a big audience. The time came when the voice shouted for us all to stand. I knew it was a woman's voice right away. And when they came in, here's a woman leading the whole thing, talking as she's coming down the aisle, took her place and conducted the funeral. And when she said her letter pray, she had to turn up to get the page and read her prayer. It wasn't her prayer, it's obvious somebody wrote the prayer, and she was just reading. It was in the manual, you see. I get that provided for me. So she was reading. More than that, she was up there violating the scripture. Of course, I was told after she's the pastor of that church. Is she? Is it a church? Going to be. But if she knew the word of God, she would know that the word of God says, let your women keep silent in church. And she was conducting the Sabbath, conductor of the Sunday, I understand. Not only so, she was supposed to be praying, and she was doing so with her head uncovered, which is a violation of First Corinthians chapter eleven. More than that, she was usurping authority over the man, which is a violation of what's written in the Epistle to Timothy. He was a woman violating the clear-cut teaching of the Word of God, claiming to be leading a church. You see, my friend, I'm mentioning that to you because I've been observing this, that we're drifting, drifting, drifting, and the Lord is outside of it all. And he's calling now to the individual with patience. I'm standing at the door, he said, I'm outside, and I'm knocking, and I'm continuing to knock. When did the Savior first knock at your heart's door, I wonder? Was it when you sat in the Sunday school, and some faithful Sunday school teacher taught you the word of God. Or was it while you were in the home and your mother or father perhaps taught you the scriptures? Many have been taught by their parents. Many have learned the word at Sunday school. How is it possible you attended some special services where there was a preacher there preaching the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and people were getting converted, and you said to yourself, now so and so has been saved, so and so has been saved, another man's been converted. I should get saved too. It's time for me to get saved, and you were anxious about it, but the meeting's finished, and and and the anxiety cooled off. It didn't just. And perhaps some years passed by, a- and something else happened again, there'd been a death. And you're faced again with this great issue, it's pointed unto men once to die. After that, after, and you're thinking then, I need to get ready for this. I- I'll have to get saved. I'll have to trust Christ. And you didn't. And the Lord has knocked and knocked and knocked, and it may be he laid you on your back in weakness, in sickness. You said, no, I have to get this thing to work. You know, I was telling a fellow in the hospital just the other night, a little verse that says, God and the doctor men adore when sickness comes, but not before. When sickness goes and things are righted, God is forgotten, the doctor slighted. You ever notice that? Oh, they want God all right and think they're dying. They don't want God as long as they think they're living. My friends, you cannot guarantee you'll have another day. I know a lad, Christian, he spoke to his brother, tried to get his brother to think of eternal matters. He says, it's fine for you, it's been a change on you, but he says, listen, I'm only eighteen years of age. He says, you just give me two years more. I want another two years. If I get another two years just to live for myself, I'll get converted when I'm twenty years of age. Two years is all he wanted. Five days later, five days later, he was walking down the main street of the city where he lived, and a man came out and put a gun right on his head and shot him cold blood. Five days after, he said, I just want you here. My friend, we cannot play fast and loose with the things of God. He says, behold, I stand at the door, I've been knocking. Oh, the patience, oh, the long suffering of our blessed Lord continues to knock at the door of the life of you and me. And he's leading up to it. He said, now, if anyone will hear my voice, if you'll listen to what I've got to say, if you'll hear my voice and open the door. Just listen and open the door. Can you imagine the Lord pleading with you and pleading with me? He wants to come in with blessing. Now, if it was somebody trying to get in to steal what we've got, we would put two locks on the door, wouldn't you? And perhaps a bar as well, or a chain. You would be getting all the locks that you could put on the door if you thought someone was coming to break in and steal what you've got. The Lord's not coming to take from you. He's not coming to steal from you. He's not coming to ask anything from you. He's not begging. He's anxious to come in and bring a blessing to you. He's bringing something to you. If anyone will hear my voice and open the door. You know, it's an amazing thing, my friend. We're willing to submit to everything and everybody else, but not to him. Why is it that men and women will not submit to the Lord Jesus Christ? He that heareth my word and believeth him that sent me hath everlasting life. He says here, if you'll open the door, here's the promise that he made. I will come in to him. I'll come in to him, and I'll stop with him, and he with me. Oh, what a promise. Yes, he'll stop with us down here, that is, he'll dine with us down here. And may I go a little further, and we'll dine with him up there. But without him, we're lost. You see, he's still standing at the door. But this is the final message to the churches, the seven of them. And you come to this one, the last one, and it's an awful state that they're in. Oh, there's still, see, I know thy works. They're still with a lot of activity, but you're neither cold nor hot. They're saying, I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. But he says, you're poor, you're miserable, you're wretched, you're blind, you're naked. Priding themselves in all that they possess. Priding themselves in what was in that city. But he said, spiritually, you've got nothing. You're blind, spiritually blind, spiritually naked, spiritually. He said, I've come to you, Dave. I've come to you. If the others will not listen, are you prepared to incline your ear? Listen to what I've got to say. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the church. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Room for Jesus, King of glory. We often sing about it, don't we? Hasten now. Swing the heart's door widely open. Friend, you've had room for everything else. You've made room in your life for everything that keeps, that you think will please you. And up till now, you've shut God out. Up till now, you've refused to submit and trust the Savior. Yet he's patiently pleading. He's calling. He's willing to save you if you trust. Oh, what a tragedy to see the Lord of glory standing outside the door. You've seen Roman Hunt's picture, haven't you? Some of you perhaps have it in your home. And there he is, supposed to be the Savior. How they managed to depict him, I don't know, because there were no pictures taken when he was here on Earth, and I don't know when they first painted that, but you know how they try to represent the Savior at the door. And there's that door, all overgrown with foliage and ivy there. And someone said to the artist, you've made a big mistake there, you know, in that picture. He said, what's the mistake? You haven't put a handle on the door. So that's right. That door only opens from the inside. Only opens from the inside. And one day a preacher, I knew the man, he's dead a few years now, he was sitting in a museum of art, a bit tired, he was sitting on the seat, and he was sitting right opposite a huge picture of Holman Hunt with Christ at the door, the oldest stand at the door. And there was someone came in there, and they had a crowd with them, and uh, he would be the guide, I suppose, and he's explaining everything in the museum, and they all gathered round here, and he's explaining this picture, Christ at the door, and he said, you know, the original of that picture was sold for, and he stated the price, tremendous price. That picture was sold, the original of that picture was sold for such a price. My friend who was sitting back had them, and he jumped out and says, excuse me, I would like to offer a little correction. The guy looked at him. He says, I happen to know that the original of that picture was sold for thirty pieces of silver. He says, thirty pieces of silver, and Judas sold his ball. Friend, what are you selling the Lord for? What is it you've put in place of him? Why is it you won't trust him, and you're still keeping him outside the door? Oh, his own nation may put him outside, and even the professing church may put him outside. Christendom may be getting on fine without him, he's outside of Christendom today. But it comes down to the individual. If anyone, if anyone will hear my voice and open the door, he says, I will come in and will stop them. And you, you, will you let him in? Please. Father, Father. we bow our hearts quietly in thy presence. We thank thee for the man whose glory crowned today at thy right hand, the Savior, the one who's both willing and able to save to the uttermost all who are coming unto thee by him. Oh God, we pray that even now that someone in this gathering who has never trusted him before will trust him today, and will be careful to give thee all the glory in his precious name. Amen. Service is over.