Robert Morris - Receive Your Keys and Your New Name
So, let me just review for a moment, we're on the sixth church, but the first five churches. Alright? And that way, I want you to think about, if you've missed one of these and you meant to go back and listen to it, and you forgot, that this will kind of spur your memory so that you will, alright. The first church was the church at Ephesus. I called the message, Return to Your First Love, and in the headings of many Bibles it's called The Loveless Church. So Return to Your First Love. The second was the church at Smyrna. It's called The Persecuted Church in a title, so I called it, Remember God's Faithfulness. When you're under persecution, you remember God's faithfulness. The third church was the church at Pergamum. It's called The Compromising Church, so we called it Refuse to Compromise. The fourth, the church at Thyatira, it's called The Corrupt Church. They allowed a spirit to come in. And I named the message Resist the Enemy. We all have an enemy, and we all battle.
Last week was the church at Sardis. I called the message Rise From the Dead. And in the Bible it's called The Dead Church. And this week the church is Philadelphia. And it is actually called The Faithful Church. And I'm entitling the message, Receive Your Keys and Your New Name. Now I was just going to do, Receive Your New Name, and there are three aspects of his name that he says he's going to put on us, and so it looked like a perfect outline. But I just could not go past the part about the keys. We've been talking about the salutation to each church; in other words, the greeting and how the greeting fits that church exactly. And so the greeting talks about the keys. And so we got to talk about it.
The church of Philadelphia, as you know, I said this as a joke at the first, they started a sister church in Pennsylvania. But it's not true. But I asked Debbie, I just decided that... I had forgotten about the church in Pennsylvania, so I asked Debbie, I said, "Do you know what the word Philadelphia means"? And so she said, "Brotherly love," because that's their motto, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city of brotherly love. And I was shocked, and I said, "Well, that's actually right". Philia is one of the Greek words for love, which means friendship. Eros means intimate or erotic; we got our word erotic from it. And erotic is not wrong, obviously, between a husband and wife. And then agape is the way God loves. And there are five, but those are the three that we talk about the most. We call it phileo is the way you would say it.
So phileo, which is phila means friendly love. But delphos, the Greek word delphia means brotherly. So it is, it is talking about a city of brotherly love. So let's read it, Revelation 3:7. "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, 'These things says He who is holy, He who is true,'" and we're going to talk about this next part, "'He who has the key of David,'" There's one other place this is mentioned in the Bible, it's in the Old Testament. So it's amazing, these are the only two places the key of David is mentioned. And then this is what it says, "'He who opens and no one shuts,'" this is Jesus, "'and shuts and no one opens.'" I want you to know if he opens a door for you, no one can shut it. That's a pretty good deal. And if he shuts a door like to shame or condemnation from your past, no one can open that door. "'For you have a little strength,'" This is something that the Lord spoke to me. Oh, pardon me, verse eight, the first part.
But when I was recovering from a health crisis, the Lord gave me this verse. "'I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, but you have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan,'" We've covered that, if you say I don't remember it, then go back and listen to that message. It was the third message, "'who say they are Jews and are not, but lie, indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.'" Now, I just need to say something here because we have very, sometimes we have corrupt minds. We have selfish minds. We have to renew our minds. And so we think, "I got a Scripture here that all these people that have kind of been bad to me one day are going to come and bow down to me and worship at my feet". And that's not what it's talking about. You always have to take the Bible in context with the rest of the Bible.
So let me remind you that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. And in the Greek, what this is saying it's not just "before," but it could be translated "with". In other words, I'm going to make even those who are of the synagogue of Satan are going to bow down one day with your feet. So they're not going to come and bow down to us. They're going to come and bow down to Jesus, the only one who deserves to be worshiped. And yet he says, yet they're going to understand then that you were trying to tell them the truth when you were sharing Christ with them. Okay?
Alright, so let's just clarify that. Verse 10, "'Because you've kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world,'" I wish I could go into that because again, we have so much teaching on the end times that we think things refer to things that they don't always refer to. "...to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I'm coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. He who has an ear,'" This is said to all seven churches, "'...let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"
Again, this is to all churches. So I only have two points this week, but I'll make them as long as seven. No, I'm just kidding, as long as three. Alright. So here's the first one: Receive your keys. Receive your keys. The salutation Jesus begins with, "I'm the one who has the key of David". And he is referring to a specific story in the Old Testament about Shebna. Now, I like to say that because if we were playing Bible trivia, and I used to do Bible trivia a lot and I liked it, it was fun to do. So if I said to you, who is Shebna, most of you might not know that he was Hezekiah's steward. And there's a story about him that's true, that happened, but it represents Satan and Jesus. And it's in Isaiah 22. And it's the only other place the key of David is mentioned in the Bible. So Jesus says, "I have the key of David," and in the Old Testament there's a prophecy about the key of David that actually ends up being a prophecy about Jesus. Alright?
Alright, so Isaiah 22:15, "This is what the Lord, the Lord of Heaven's Armies, said to me:" to Isaiah, "'Confront Shebna, the palace administrator, and give him this message: Who do you think you are, and what are you doing here, building a beautiful tomb for yourself, a monument high up in the rock?'" Now, remember this actually happened, but it has spiritual imagery to it. "'For the Lord is about to hurl you away, mighty man.'" In other words, remember God cast Satan out of heaven, He's also going to cast him into the lake of fire. "'He is going to grab you, crumple you into a ball, and toss you away into a distant, barren land. There you will die, and your glorious chariots will be broken and useless. You are a disgrace to your master!'" Remember Satan was an archangel. "'Yes, I will drive you out of office,' says the Lord. 'I will pull you down from your high place.'" By the way, Shebna means "vigor". And when you look at it more deeply, it means "selfish ambition".
There are a lot of people who have selfish ambition that God's pulls down. And the reason I said that is because in a minute I'm going to show you what the other word means of the person replacing him. "'And then,'" verse 20, "'I will call my servant Eliakim,'" Eliakim means "God raises up". In other words, he doesn't have to raise himself up, God raises him up. "'...The son of Hilkiah to replace you.'" And Eliakim represents Jesus. "'I will dress him in your royal robes and will give him your title and your authority. And he will be a father to the people of Jerusalem and Judah. I will give him the key to the house of David", Jesus said, "I have the key to the house of David". "'...the highest position in the royal court. When he opens doors..." Anyone recognize this? "'...no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them. He will bring honor to his family name, for I will drive him firmly in place like a nail in the wall.'"
And notice a nail in the wall. We'll bring that back to Jesus in a moment about a nail. "'They will give him great responsibility, and he will bring honor to even the lowliest members of his family.'" I love that verse because it means you don't have to be a big shot for Jesus to bring you honor. There are people that many people will never know their name like teachers. And I'm just going to use teachers for an example, that if they had a reunion of their students, their students would say, "You did this, and you did this, and you helped me. And you saw potential in me when no one else did". And they would give honor to that person. So Shebna was the steward. What that means is he was the steward of the king's resources. He was supposed to use the king's resources to benefit the people. But he used the king's resources to benefit himself. He was actually building a tomb for himself where the wealthy people have tombs. This is an actual story of what he was doing. And that's when Isaiah shows up and says, "Who do you think you are? You don't have any family buried here. You're not royalty".
Let me show you a picture of some archeological ruins of tombs in a hill like this. See how they built those tombs up in a hill like that? That's exactly what Shebna was doing. And he came along and he said, "You should be using your resources to help the people of God. Instead, you're building a monument to yourself". Now I'm going to say something that I just feel strongly to say. I've been helping pastors for many, many years, and I've been helping churches for many, many years. I have seen over and over and over again a pastor build something, a big building project, borrow the money to do it, and then leave the church and go somewhere else and leave the church in debt. And brag about, "When I was there, we built this big building". And in essence, "Now it's up to my successor to fill the building". But what he actually did was just take the church into debt, and he built a monument to himself with the King's resources. The King's resources. They were not the pastor's, they were the King's. That's what Shebna's doing.
So he says, "I'm going to tear you down and I'm going to put someone in your place". And this person, again, represents Jesus Christ. So he puts Jesus. You also need to know something about this key. There was a master key back then, and we have master keys today. They're just a little different in that a master key can open any lock, but then any other person's key can open this lock to this section of the building, this lock to this section of the building. Of course, some of you, when I talk about keys, you're thinking of key cards. But for the younger folks, we used to actually have pieces of metal that would open doors, and okay, there were locks. Alright. Okay. But a master key... In those days there was a master key that once it opened a door, the door could not be locked except with the master key. And once it closed the door and locked it, no other key could open it because the master key had locked it.
You need to know that when God opens an opportunity to you, no one can shut that door. And you also need to know that when God closes a door to your past, no can open that door. He's the only one that has that key. He's the only one. I was talking with a couple in our church a while back. And they said, the wife was telling me, and her husband was standing there. She said, she told me the story, he didn't mind her telling her the story. And she said, "We want to tell you a story we've been wanting to tell you for a while. He was making $1,500 a month. And we heard your teaching on tithing and we decided to start tithing. And within just a short time, he was making over $10,000 a month".
Now here's what happened. Jesus, not my teaching, now there's obviously the teaching in the Word of God that they obeyed, but Jesus, because they obeyed a teaching in the Word, opened a door that no one could shut. So this is all through Scripture to talk about this. The other thing I want you to understand is, I've stopped at verse 24, but it doesn't stop there. It has one more verse in the passage, and then it goes on to chapter 23. But I have to read that verse. Remember, he said, "I'm going to fasten this nail securely". But this is a messianic Scripture that many, many people miss. Verse 25 of chapter 22 says, "But the Lord of Heaven's Army also says: 'The time will come when I will pull out the nail that seemed so firm. It will come out and fall to the ground. And everything it supports will fall with it. I, the Lord, have spoken it!'" This is a direct reference to, There's going to come a time that I'm going to take Jesus, My Son out of heaven. And I'm going to take Him down to the earth, the ground. And then it says everything he supports is going to go with him. And then he talks about even in Scripture, that he goes to the lowest parts of the earth. Okay?
Here's what you know what he supported that went with him to the lowest parts of the earth: our sin. God put all of our sin on this nail. And this nail took the punishment for all of our sin. And here's the way Colossians says it. Colossians 2:14, Jesus, "He canceled the record of the charges against us and He took it away by nailing it to the cross". He took a nail and he nailed it to the cross and our sins are gone. They're gone. So I hope you get it that this Book's amazing. It was written by a Higher Being. And it is very amazing. And no matter how many times you've read through it, you haven't finished it yet. One other thing is we talked about the keys, but Jesus is also the door. John 10:9 says, "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved".
I heard about a lady that was a strong believer. And after she retired, and her husband passed away, she moved back to her hometown. And it was a very small hometown, like very, very small. And it only had a Catholic church. And she was not a Catholic. And she attended another church before that, but she was a very strong believer in Jesus Christ. And so, as she lied dying on her death bed, she attended this Catholic church, but she never joined it. But she attended 'cause it was the only church in town. But as she lied dying on her death bed, and I'm not trying to say anything negative about Catholics, but the priest came and said kind of what his understanding was. He said, "I wish you had joined the church because if you had joined the church, I could pray for you and your sins would be forgiven and you could go to heaven". And she said, "Thank you. I know your intentions are right. I know that's what you believe. I understand. But my sins are forgiven and I am going to heaven". And he said... He said to her, "But lady don't you know Peter's got the keys"? And she said, "Let him keep the keys. I've got the door".
So Jesus, he's not only got the keys, he's the door. So here's number two: Receive your new name. Receive your new name. Now twice before, twice before, Philadelphia had changed its name. In other words, they gave themselves a new name, and he talks about that. It's amazing how each church, it's specific to that church. One of the times they changed their name to Neocaesarea. Now some of you've have been to Caesarea in Israel when you take the tour. But they change it to Neocaesarea; Neo in the Greek means new, so New Caesarea. The reason they did that was because an earthquake almost destroyed their city, literally did destroy their city, and Caesar gave them funds to rebuild. So they said, "We're going to call ourselves New Caesarea". But it didn't last long because they'd been around for many centuries. And after a while, you just say, "You mean Philadelphia"?
And so it would go back. But twice they had changed their name. But Revelation 3:12, we read a moment ago, "I will write on him the name of My God, the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem," This would be a good Bible study for you, these were going to be my three points. "'...which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.'" those three new names. But this is not the first time he talked about us having a new name to the seven churches. In Revelation 2:17, He said, "I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it". I just want to remind you, this is not the first time that God talks about us having new names. And it's not the first time that he changes your name. There's a guy we all know that was named Abram, and God changed his name to Abraham. And his wife's name was Sarai, and God changed her name to Sarah. And there was a guy that we know that was named Jacob, and God changed his name to Israel. Do you follow me?
We could go kind of on and on, and we could even talk about the New Testament, Simon, and he changed his name to Peter. And then who wrote a third of the New Testament? It's a very easy Bible... Who wrote a third of the New Testament? Paul. That wasn't his name. His name was Saul. By the way, God did not change his name, if just you want to know, this might deflate your bubble a little, I don't know. But Saul was his Hebrew name. And when God called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles, he began using his Roman name, which was Paul. And so that's what happened. But God's in the habit of doing this. And I want to just show you, again, that it's all through, these truths are all through the Bible. They're not just every now and then. And I had so many Scriptures. I took more Scripture out today, so that I'd be able to have time to get everything in. Isaiah 62:2, "You shall be called by a new name..." I mean, it's all through Scripture. But let me show you something about this new name that you might not know. God has a specific place that he wants to write it.
Revelation 14:1. "Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father's name written on their foreheads". Revelation 22:3-4. "And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads". Now, remember I told you, I don't think that there's anything you can show me in the New Testament that I can't show you in the Old Testament or imagery of it in the Old Testament. And there may be. There may be. But I haven't found anything yet. If I find it in the New, I can find it in the Old. Let me just show you in the Old Testament, the mark of God on your forehead.
Alright. Ezekiel 9:1. "Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, ''Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand.' And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen..." That would be the garment of a priest. "...and had a writer's inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer's inkhorn at his side; and the Lord said to him, 'Go through the midst of the city, 'through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark, a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry...'" In other words, who are repentant and humble. "'...over all the abominations that are done within it.' To the others," Those are the ones with he swords, the weapons. "...He said in my hearing, 'Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark.'"
Now, this never happened in the natural, this was a vision that Ezekiel had. Let me just explain that to you, okay. Here's the point though. Here we've got the mark of God in the Old Testament. And we're talking about the seven churches of Revelation and the book of Revelation. I have to say this, and I want you to hear this. We talk way too much about the mark of the beast, when we ought to be talking about the mark of God. When you have the mark of God on your forehead, you don't need to worry about the mark of the beast. Because you have been marked by God. And the way you get marked by God we know is to give our lives to Jesus Christ; is to trust in him, and he gives us a new name and he writes it on our foreheads. And let me just, when Satan and when the beast come and they see that name, they leave, because they can't handle that.
Now, now I want to give you one more Scripture and tie, and let me see if it's one more. It actually is, okay. It's one more passage, alright? Okay. That's one more Scripture to me. And I want to tie in keys and the new name. And it's New Testament, and it's Jesus, and it's keys and the new name. And a while ago I said, receive your keys. And if you were thinking, if you're analytical in this way, and even if you're analytical, but you didn't, you might not have thought this, I said receive your keys, and you might've had the thought, "Well, you talked about Jesus has the keys, but you never talked about him giving me the keys". So I'm going to show you where he gives you the keys and a new name.
Matthew 16:13. "When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?' So they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter..." He's using both names. "...answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah,'" By the way, that was his birth name. He goes all the way back, like Jacob was his birth name, Simon-Bar-Jonah means the son of Jonah, Simon son of Jonah. "'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter.'" I'm changing your name. "'And on this rock I will build My church," Now the rock, let me just go back to make sure you know that it's not Peter, it's the revelation that "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". That is the rock that the church is built on, is that Jesus is the Son of the living God.
Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Son of the living God". He said, "On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades," which is the Greek word for hell, "shall not prevail against it". Now watch. "And I will give you," this is everyone who believes Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth". Could we say whatever you lock, whatever you shut, whatever door you close will be closed in heaven in the spiritual realm also. "And whatever you loose on earth," or whatever you open, "will be loosed in heaven," will be opened in the spiritual realm. This is why I couldn't just do receive your new name. I had to do receive your keys and you'll receive your new name.
Now, this includes me. I'm going to give a personal illustration. I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior in a motel room at 19. I'm 60 now, that means this February I'll be saved 41 years. What that means is that now I am now perfect. I don't sin anymore, and I don't make any mistakes. Please don't take that one clip and put it on YouTube. Okay? This doesn't mean that you don't still make mistakes. It means that when you make mistakes you realize that I have a new name. I'm not Jacob, a supplanter anymore. I'm Israel, a prince of God. I'm a son of the King. And I can be forgiven and go on. I... I detest pride. I detest it because it ruins so many people. It's the original sin. You can say all you want to about Adam and Eve being the original sin, but they're not the original sinners. Satan is.
And Isaiah 14 tells us the original sin, which was pride. I detest it when I see it in my own life, more than even when I see it in others. I told you about our elders reunion this last week. It was Tuesday night. And we were going around the room and we were talking about how much we love Pastor Olen and Sybil, our spiritual mom and dad. And we were honoring them. And I had this thought that I wanted to say something about, look how far, through all of us, your reach has gone. But I made a statement, just one little statement about how large our television ministry is. And I was thinking in my mind, I want to say to them, look what you've done has gone so far. But when it came out of my mouth, it sounded so arrogant to me, so prideful. And I don't know if this has ever happened to you. But have any of you ever said anything you wish you could take back? Am I just the only one?
Sorry, Steve, but I was thinking, I started to say, Steve Dulin, my best friend's sat here, one of our elders, started say, "Are Steve and I the only ones that have ever done this"? 'Cause we do joke about it a lot, that we make mistakes. Even at our age in the Lord, we make mistakes. Being humble doesn't mean you never make a prideful statement. It doesn't mean you never make a mistake. Being humble means that when the Lord convicts you, you're willing to recognize it and repent. Also, though, being humble means that when someone else points it out to you, you're willing to repent. Because you might not see it. And I'm going to go a step further. Being humble also means that when someone points out to you something, and you don't even think you were wrong, that you're willing to respond humbly.
And you say, "Well, I don't know about that because if I wasn't wrong, why would I need to respond humbly"? Well, I can give you the answer: because Jesus never did one thing wrong, and read Philippians 2. He humbled Himself, but he never did anything wrong. He walked on this earth in humility. I've been given a new name. I've been given the keys to the Kingdom. I can open doors that no one can shut. I can shut doors that no one can open through the power of the Holy Spirit, as long as I'm praying in agreement with heaven. But when I make mistakes, I've got to recognize it, put it under the blood, and walk humbly before my God and before my friends.
I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. I've been noticing in this series, how the Lord keeps speaking about humility. And I think he keeps speaking about it, not because we're a prideful church or we're prideful people, but I think he wants to take us to a new level. For instance, we talked about Shebna who used the king's resources to build the monument to himself. It doesn't mean if you have a nice home or nice cars that you're building a monument to yourself. I just want to know in your heart, do you know that the resources you have belong to the King? I even gave the illustration, and I haven't talked about tithing in a long time, but maybe the Holy Spirit is using that in your life because maybe he's been speaking to you about it. If he hadn't been speaking to you about it, or if he doesn't enlighten that to you right now, then this isn't for you; but it might be. And the only reason, the only reason that God ever speaks to us about that is to bless us, is to rebuke the devourer for our sakes.
So many of his children are going through such turmoil that they don't need to go through in their finances. And I talked about how sometimes pastors build these big buildings and take the church into debt. And maybe there's something there the Lord's speaking to you about debt and about going through our financial classes and learning to pay that debt down so you don't have so much stress. I talked about having a humble response when someone believes that you've said or done something wrong, even when you don't even believe you were wrong, will you respond with humility? It doesn't mean you can't talk about it or share your perspective, but what's your attitude? What's the attitude of your heart? But the wonderful thing is that even when we blow it because of grace, he's written the name of his God, his Father on our foreheads. And we belong to God.
God gave him the key of David. It says in the New King James, he laid it on his shoulder, and the Bible says the government will rest on his shoulder. And then Jesus turns around and says to us, "I'm going to build the church. And to my church, I'm going to give the keys to the Kingdom, so that you can bind things on this earth and they'll be bound in heaven. And you can lose things on this earth that will be loosed in heaven". What's the Holy Spirit saying to you? So just take a moment. And then this week, would you maybe make a note that in your quiet time one morning, you'll just ask the Holy Spirit, "Lord, let me just review the notes". They're on YouVersion and you could just review the notes and say, "What are You saying to me"?
Lord, we want to tell you, thank you. You have so lavished your love on us by taking that nail that was securely and firmly placed in the wall, and taking that nail and taking it all the way down to the earth, the ground, and putting all of our sins on your Son. And he nailed them to the cross. Lord, we want to tell you, thank you. And God, I pray that your Word will do its work in my heart first, and in all of our hearts that hear this message. In Jesus' name, amen.