Simple Faith

Guest (Male): You may be facing a time of physical weakness right now, but Pastor Bill Henry reminds us that our strength comes from the Lord.

Bill Henry: You might feel like you have a little strength today, and that’s how I feel today. I used to feel like a proud American citizen and you’ll hear my voice, and the government listens to us. Now we’re being woken up. Not really anymore, huh? We see what’s happening again within the world, within the church. But notice you have little strength and have kept my word.

Look guys and gals, we may feel like we have little strength, but remember that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Guest (Male): Are you weak? Well, that’s a good thing. Now, maybe that sounds strange to you, but it’s perfectly normal in God’s economy. This is Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, and that is exactly what we pray for you: that you would find simple faith in our Lord Jesus Christ each and every day.

In Revelation 3, we find a church that Jesus had nothing bad to say about. One reason was that they were weak. We know that when we are weak, God’s strength can shine. When we depend on our own power, we are limited. God’s power is unlimited, and that’s a guarantee. With more on the letter to Philadelphia, here’s our teacher, Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: Again, it doesn’t say that Jesus speaks the truth, which He does, but Jesus is the truth. Remember what we read in John 14:6. Jesus said to them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.” Jesus is the truth. Here again, that’s reaffirmed. You want to know what the truth is today? Go to the word of God because this is God’s breathed-out truth.

There are many today who go against the word of God, even in the name of Jesus. I was brought up in a church where basically they would mix in the word of God, mixing in a whole bunch of truth with a bunch of lies. I have a water up here, and if somebody put just one drop of cyanide in here, anybody want a drink? Not me. Sometimes we’ll take the truth with all these other lies mixed in instead of coming and saying, “Lord, I just want you, Jesus. I want you. You are the truth.”

So when we want the truth, we don’t go to the world. Please, as Christians, we need to stop going to the world. You’re dealing with depression? Then repent and put your faith in Jesus Christ. “Oh, that’s pretty mean, Pastor Bill. That’s pretty harsh.” What do you think they did for the last 1,900 years in the church? They didn’t have antidepressant pills as they were facing lions in the arena in Rome.

They didn’t have to take drugs as they were being brought to the stake to die because they had the spirit of God. They had the word of God, which is truth, and they believed what God says over what the world says. Why are we depressed? Because we’re believing what the world says and we’re not believing the truth of the word. Of course we’re going to be depressed.

“I’m not as good-looking as this gal on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter,” or whatever it is. “I don’t have as much as that guy. Look at that. Look at all those. I wish I could do this, or I don’t have as many followers on TikTok.” Jesus says, “Who cares? You’re mine. I say you’re mine. Nothing can separate you from my love. I have a plan for you, and my plan’s perfect for you. My thoughts for you are always good, never of evil.”

If we look at the world, it’s almost always evil, isn't it? Of course we’re going to need drugs to deal with all that junk if we’re not deep in Christ. I’d rather be high on the Holy Spirit of God. “Be not drunk on wine, but be filled with the spirit of God.” It’s the same thought. Some like to be filled with the spirit of the world. We have to be careful. Jesus is truth. You want to know the truth about anything, we come here. We don’t go out there.

By the way, we don’t go in here either. Amen? We don’t even say, “Pastor Bill, what’s been your experience over the years?” This is what the Bible says. I’ve had people tell me, “I don’t want to hear what the Bible says.” Well, I don’t have anything else to give you. Everything else I give you is just like a belly button. Everybody here have a belly button? An outie, innie, mixed? We all have opinions. This is the truth.

Jesus is the truth. You see, Jesus is holy, He is truth, and look at what it goes on to say: “He who has the keys of David.” Jesus is the one who has the keys of David. Basically, He’s taking a description of who He is out of Isaiah chapter 22. If you’ll flip over there with me, please. Isaiah 22. If you go back in Isaiah 21, you’ll see there’s a prophecy here, and we come into the middle of the prophecy in Isaiah 22.

You’ll notice it even here in verse 7, that it’s going to tie in with verse 8 as well with what’s being said here in Isaiah 22:22-24. Isaiah 22:22-24 says this: “And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel from cups to the flagons.”

So Jesus here, back in Revelation, is claiming again to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 22:22. It’s again beautiful. Look, I have the key of David. Look back in our text, verse 7, as it continues: “He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.” Look, guys and gals, Jesus alone has the keys to heaven. Every other key out there that you can look at, every key that you might try to find through Buddha, Mohammad, Krishna, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, whoever it is, those are false keys.

Remember, they go against Him who is holy, Him who is true, and they go against the truth of the word of God. Then they seek to lead you somewhere else. Yet Jesus is the only one who can open and no one shuts. Jesus is the one who opened the way to heaven at the cross of Jesus Christ. When Jesus died upon the cross, He made the way that you and I could not make. He turned the key, He opened the door, and remember, here’s the beautiful thing: He not only has the key, but He’s also the door.

Remember when He said that? “I am the door to the sheepfold. He is the good shepherd. He leads us.” I love how all these pictures so tie together of who Jesus is. Now notice here, when Jesus opens heaven, no one can shut it. But notice, too, that when He shuts it, no one can force it open. He says He shuts and no one opens. When Jesus shuts the door to heaven, no one can get in. Not the richest man on earth with all of his riches, not the most powerful woman on earth with all her power. It doesn’t matter. We cannot storm the gates of heaven and say, “Okay, we’re taking over now.” It doesn’t work.

As a matter of fact, the opposite is true. As He shuts, it remains shut. We can’t open it. Again, Buddha couldn’t open it, Krishna couldn’t open it. You and I can’t open it by doing good things. Only Jesus Christ can open and shut, and when He shuts it, it’s shut. Turn with me to Revelation 21. As we see, we’re going to look there and then we’re going to turn to Revelation 22 in a moment, too.

Here we come in the midst of Revelation 21. Jesus is describing the new heavens, the new earth, how awesome it is, the new Jerusalem, what God’s going to be doing. It’s just beautiful. But He puts this in the middle of it as a warning to those of us who are alive today. Revelation 21:25 says its gates shall not be shut all day; there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations to it. But here it is in verse 27: “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

That door is shut to the one who has not repented of their sins. Go over to chapter 22, verse 14. It says, “Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.” The gate is shut if we have not repented of our sins and believed in Jesus Christ to be the Lord of our lives. If we’ve not believed the truth and been made holy by His righteousness and His holiness, that gate is shut and it will remain shut until we come in through Him.

Come back to verse 8 of Revelation 3. He continues, “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it.” So again, as we’re going to see, the church there in Philadelphia remained faithful. I believe that the door the Lord’s talking about here, while heaven is definitely the first application, I believe this to be an open door to ministry. When God opens a door to ministry, He opens those doors, by the way, and if He doesn’t, I don’t want to go through it.

But if He does, I pray that we have the strength and the faith to walk through those open doors of faith. When God opens that door to ministry, whether we’re young or old, it doesn’t matter. May we still have that faith to walk through it. It was so funny. We were at a graduation down south just the last couple days, and Tilia went down a little bit before I did to help pack up and stuff. They went to the women’s study that night and they were looking for their one friend, Marilyn.

Tilia is looking around. She said she was going to be here, I can’t find her. She’s looking at all these women. All of a sudden she looked up at the worship team as they’re on the platform. She looked up and there’s Marilyn, who is about 70 years old. She’s sitting there at the drums rocking out to Jesus, playing the worship, helping lead worship. Tilia is like, “That’s who I want to be when I grow up,” because she’s using the gifts. There had to be a time where she’s like, “Oh, am I too old for this? No, Lord, I’m just going to keep praising you till the day I die. I’m going to step out and serve you and step out and love others.”

When God opens a door before you, beloved in Christ, remember nobody can shut it. Walk through it by faith. But at the same time, just a quick reminder: if God shuts a door, don’t try to kick it open either. We’ve had the Lord close the doors to many places for us to meet. Even the one we’re meeting at is like, it’s going to be awesome, but it’s not exactly what Bill would have wanted. I had it in my picture in my mind. But I’m so thankful because what He wants is so much better than what I want and what He has for us.

“Lord, you open this door, let’s go.” But when He closes a door, be careful not to try to shove it open. Now notice what He goes on to say. He says, “For you have a little strength, have kept my word, and have not denied my name.” Let me read this from a paraphrase. It says, “You don’t have much strength. I know that. You used to have what you used to keep my word. You didn’t deny me when times were rough.” I love that.

There’s an interesting note as we’re coming to this portion of the letter, and this is one of the reasons I really love this letter. Remember we have the prophetical views of the letters that we’ve talked about many times. Each letter also represents, even though it was really truly written to a church at the time, it also represents a prophetical age within the church. When you look back at the letters, we’re blessed because we can look back at almost 2,000 years of church history. The letters represent this part of the church history. Remember, we were saying this is to the Catholic church and this is to the Protestant church.

This letter, as we’re coming in, I believe prophetically would represent those who are the remnant church in the last days. Those who are part of the remnant church in the last days, those who are waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. Before that, we have the rapture of His church and many other things that will happen. So that’s what I believe this letter is, representing in church history. Just as the next letter, the church to Laodicea, also represents the great falling away from the church that we’re going to study when we come to that.

Now again, the signs that Jesus gave us in the gospels of the last days and throughout His word, those signs are all pointing to His second coming. Remember, the signs aren’t pointing to the rapture of the church. We can’t get those mixed up. The signs are pointing to the imminent return of Jesus Christ. But I believe one of those signs is the rapture of the church, and that will happen before, even before the tribulation. Then will come the return of Christ after the tribulation, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

But again, as we look around us today and we see so many of the signs that were given happening around us today, being fulfilled right before our eyes. Again, Israel becoming a nation again, the great falling away of the church all around us. It used to just be where I’d point people. Look at Israel. But now today, I say look at Israel, but also look at the falling away of the church like never before in the history of the world. Not in the last 2,000 years, not even in the Dark Ages of the church is it as bad as today. Lawlessness increasing like never before all around the world.

We see it becoming more and more like it was in the days of Lot and as it was in the days of Noah. Nation after nation after nation is embracing sin. They don’t care about peace anymore. They care about sin and they’re embracing it like never before seen in the history of the world, by the way. We’re talking, do you remember homosexual marriage? Do you know that it was not legal in all of the history of the world until, what, was it 2000 or 2001, right in there? I think it was the Queen of Norway legalized marriage for the first time.

Not even the Grecians, who were one of the vilest and most sinful, they celebrated homosexuality, but they never made it equal to marriage. Not until these days. But again, what’s interesting is not only are countries legalizing these sins, but they’re now making it illegal not to embrace these sins. It’s nuts, it’s crazy, and we see this happening more and more around us. As we do, anybody’s heart, anybody growing weary? Sincerely. If you’re not growing weary, then you’re not looking at what’s happening, or you don’t care about the people who are headed on their way to hell.

It can be easy to get caught up in our own lives and not care about the lost. But it should make us weep. It should also make us angry to see the lies and the deception. But I believe the true Christian who is on fire for Jesus, as we see what’s happening around us, it will grieve us and it does cause you to grow weary. It almost makes you just want to go start a commune. Let’s go buy some property up in Montana. Up in the mountains, dude, we’ll just have all this killer stuff. But especially made weary and grieved by the stuff we see coming into the church today.

We can come feel more and more as Peter described. Remember how Jesus said it’s going to be as it was in the days of Noah and as it was in the days of Lot? Well, what’s kind of neat is we can go back to Genesis and see how it was in the days of Lot. But we can also go to 2nd Peter and see what Lot was feeling in the days of Lot. Turn with me to 2nd Peter chapter 2, please. How was Lot feeling as it was in the days of Lot? And again, in the last days, it will be as it was in the days of Lot. So how was he feeling?

2nd Peter chapter 2, verses 7 and 8. I’m going to read this first out of the New Living and then I’m going to reread it out of the Amplified. 2nd Peter 2:7 says, “But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people all around him.” Verse 8: “Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.”

Now let me read this out of the Amplified. Verse 7: “And he rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out, distressed by the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless.” Verse 8: “For that just man living there among them tortured his righteous soul every day with what he saw and heard of their unlawful and wicked deeds.” Dude, I read this and this describes me. That’s me. Look, it says, “greatly worn out, distressed, and sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around them. His righteous soul tortured every day by what he saw and heard of their unlawful and wicked deeds.”

Look, if you’re here this morning and you’re feeling this way, this is—come back to our text—I love what we have here because it’s so encouraging. Notice what He says, and I believe again this is to the remnant church for us today: “You have a little strength, but have kept my word and have not denied my name.” Oh, you might feel like you have a little strength today, and that’s how I feel today. I used to feel like a proud American citizen and you’ll hear my voice and the government listens to us. Now we’re like, “Oh, we’re being woken up; well, not really anymore, huh?”

And we see what’s happening again within the world, within the church. But notice you have little strength and have kept my word. Look, guys and gals, we may feel like we have little strength, but remember that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So in other words, let’s take the strength that we do have and let’s be those who notice, “have kept my word and have not denied my name.”

Focus, guys and gals, if I may, beloved in Christ, more and more your life, the strength that you do have, not on redoing the house, not on going to Barbados, or not on working your way up the ladder at work. But on being a man, a woman who is taking the strength that you have and keeping the word of God, and not denying the name of Jesus in this world that we are living in today. Again, if you have any strength left, and even if you feel like—because sometimes, I’ll be honest, yes, I’m a pastor and yes, I feel sometimes like I have little strength as I look in this world. I’m just being real with you.

But you know what? May all my strength be given for my Lord Jesus Christ. May all my strength be given: “Lord, I’m going to keep your word because you are holy, you are true, and your word is true.” And I just want to take all the strength that I have and be one who is walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, keeping the word of God and not denying the name of Jesus Christ. Look, guys and gals, there’s going to be more and more of a push for you to deny the word of God. Because you can be a Christian out there. If you notice, it’s only the Christians who believe what the Bible said who are truly evil.

So you can be a Christian out there and deny the word of God. But if you deny the word of God, if we’re not keeping the word of God, we’re also denying the Son of God who has written the word of God. Be careful in these days. Be those who refuse no matter where the rest of the world or even professing Christians go. We will be those who walk biblically and lovingly after our Lord Jesus in accordance to His word, and we will not deny the name of Jesus with our lips nor with our thoughts nor with our actions. Determine in your heart to be by the grace of God these things.

Guest (Male): Stay with us because Pastor Bill has one more wonderful Bible verse to share with us in just a few moments. I hope you were blessed by today’s message from Pastor Bill Henry. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill’s new series in the book of Revelation.

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If you would prefer the US Mail, our mailing address is PO Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, and the zip code is 98604. Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have three services every Sunday morning at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30, and a great time of studying God’s word every Wednesday evening at 7:00. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org and also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Now to bring us a great verse from Joshua chapter 24, here’s Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: Let me read this from Joshua 24:14. He says, “So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols of your ancestors worshipped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose this day today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods of your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” What’s your choice this morning, beloved in Christ?

Guest (Male): Amen. That is such a wonderful verse, isn’t it? Have a blessed day and join us next time for Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.