Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today I want to challenge you to think over the issue of being banned, of being forsaken, of being shunned by your own culture because you are a Christian. This is the situation that the saints in the church in Philadelphia faced back in the first century according to the book of Revelation. Now we are studying at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church the book of Revelation.

I'm preaching through it and I want to announce, I'm excited to announce, that we will be commencing a community Bible study on the book of Revelation beginning this fall. And we're going to have it off-site from our church because it is open to the entire community and we want to take it out of the classic church setting. And so beginning October 10, that's a Thursday night, we will have regularly on Thursday evenings a community Bible study between the hours of 7 and 8.15. We'll commence promptly at 7 p.m. and conclude promptly at 8.15. So you can count on those times.

And we want to open this up then to the entire community to bring in just in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. We want to be able then to discuss the book of Revelation and any attendant issues too. We want to be ready and willing to go where the participants are willing to go. I'm also excited to announce, broadening it into the community, is that I will be team teaching it then with Pastor Mike Gilea from Share the Sun Ministries. Pastor Mike Gilea from Share the Sun Ministries.

Now many of you know Pastor Mike. We support him in his missionary efforts and outreach in our community. And he's excited about team teaching this with me too. He is passionately reading and studying the book of Revelation himself at this stage of his life. And I am too.

And so our paths have merged here over this issue of the book of Revelation. And so we will be team teaching a series on the book of Revelation on the apocalypse beginning Thursday, October 10 at 7 p.m. Now our venue has not yet been identified. So we're not sure exactly where we're going to be holding it. But we do know these things. And soon I will be able to share with you our venue.

It will be a relaxed atmosphere with our coffee and treats to purchase wherever we end up having it. It'll be at a public facility, public restaurant or coffee house or some such relaxed and friendly atmosphere. That's a study on the apocalypse, the book of Revelation beginning Thursday, October 10 at 7 p.m. running from 7 p.m. to 8 15 p.m. Wow.

Let's get back then to our letter before us and the issue of being shunned, of being excluded, of being persecuted and suffering for your faith because you are Christian and you refuse to participate in the debauched parts of your culture, which indeed the church in Philadelphia was doing, standing for the gospel, standing for Christ. And we know this from Revelation chapter 3, verses 7 through 13. So let me read those verses for you so that we can familiarize ourselves with the circumstances of the church in Philadelphia in the first century in the book of Revelation. Revelation 3, verses 7 to 13.

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens, no one can shut, and what he shuts, no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews, though they are not, but are liars. I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. I'm coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown.

Him who overcomes, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God. And I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, unquote.

That is the letter to the church in Philadelphia found in the apocalypse in Revelation chapter three, written to this church that was being banned, that was being shadow banned, if you will, even as banning goes on now in the social media world, doesn't it? Social media in our own time and culture, we can better understand the situation in Philadelphia if we understand some of the things that are going on with us here today as well. Social media, for example, has increasingly succumbed to progressive tyranny by banning conservative voices on all their platforms.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, other social media giants have colluded to silence conservatives by seeing that they do not share their content with other users. Now, conservative activist James O'Keefe is founder of Project Veritas, an organization that captures progressives in their own lives by going underground and then exposing them unawares. Now, the Washington Post did an article on how O'Keefe and Project Veritas caught Twitter employees admitting bias against conservatives and revealing what we've known for a long time. That is, Twitter shadow bans conservatives.

Shadow banning means that your post still appears on your site as if posted as usual, but Twitter's algorithm reduces or eliminates altogether the distribution of that post to other Twitter accounts. And consequently, you may think you've posted to your own followers, but in reality, they have received nothing from you. The Washington Post article chronicles how this happens to conservatives exclusively since the social media giants are all progressive liberals. How does that happen, huh?

In addition to this more subtle form of ostracizing, and that really is what it is, ostracizing, excuse me, media platforms like Facebook and Twitter resort to outright banning of content they find offensive. Is it any wonder that James O'Keefe and Project Veritas are banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many other social media sites after their expose of Twitter and its bias? All the other sites realized they were guilty of the very same practices as Twitter and therefore kill the messenger. But of course, the draconian methods haven't stopped with Project Veritas. Other prominent effective voices have been banned as well.

Matt Drudge, Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, Paul Joseph Watson, to name just a few. Matt Drudge, who presides over the Drudge Report, whose audience exceeds that of CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC combined, in spite of being banned, he described the mainstream media's efforts as similar to that of the Nazis, enforcing minorities hated by them into ghettos. Only ours are digital ghettos. And the object is the same, though, as that of the Nazis, that is to isolate, demonize, and then destroy. Well, what happens when you depend on your social media accounts and the advertising they draw for your livelihood and your band?

All right, you go hungry. You are deprived of your means of living. You are a social pariah. You are a persona non grata. You are dangerous and racist.

Well, the saints in Philadelphia found themselves in a very similar situation in their own day, their own technology, their own experiences. Only they found it happening to them. This banning, this shunning in real time and space, not in cyberspace. They were being banned from the synagogue and the trade guilds for their faith. They suffered the consequences for their stand as well.

And they found themselves isolated, demonized, and then destroyed. Well, let us find out how our first century brothers were shadow banned, if you will, in their own way in the city of Philadelphia. Now, I just read for you the text, and what I'd like to do is make several points concerning the church in Philadelphia so that we have an understanding of their circumstances and what the book of Revelation means. From verses 7 through 9, let me make the point from verses 7 through 9 that the church in Philadelphia, although you have been closed out from the synagogue, you have open access to my presence, the Lord Jesus Christ's presence.

As all believers do, do they not open access to the presence of God through Christ? Well, the scene in Philadelphia opens, as you may remember from our reading, the scene in Philadelphia opens with a slightly different emphasis than in other letters, because there our Lord draws directly from the opening vision of the risen Lord in chapter 1 in order to cite an attribute that pertains to the church under consideration. But here in Philadelphia, he calls himself the holy one, the true one. Now, these are attributes implicit in the vision of the Lord in chapter 1, but not explicitly mentioned.

What is pertinent here is that this is part of the opening salutation in early synagogue services. Yes, the holy one, the true one. God himself was called the holy one, the true one, in the commencement of synagogue services. When we know this little bit of fact, we can better understand the context why our Lord is mentioning these things. And in addition, at the opening of synagogue services, the lector would walk up to the scriptorum and produce a key to unlock it, and then he would retrieve the scroll to be read from that Sabbath day, and he would bring it to the rabbi.

And so, we have an allusion to the true synagogue service in the very opening verse, where it is Christ who has the key of David, i.e. the key of the scriptorum to open the word of God, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. The key, which unalterably locks and unlocks, has more symbolism than this, however, as well. For example, the key, which unalterably locks and unlocks, was a symbol of authority, in that those in possession of keys were men of great authority in those days. In the palaces of kings and the temples of gods, the steward permitted access and egress to the kings and to the gods.

The key of David has a specific reference here, too. Isaiah 22, where the faithless steward of the temple at the time of the exile, Shebna, is promised that he will be thrown out of office like a baseball on opening day. And then looking to the future, that office will be given to Eliakim. If you read Isaiah chapter 22, the office would be taken from Shebna and given to Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, where he says in Isaiah 22, I will clothe him with your robe and will bind your sash on him and will commit your authority to his hand. See what keys represented?

Oh, the sign of that authority is the key. That's plain from Isaiah 22, verse 22, where Eliakim is promised, 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, unquote. And then Isaiah goes on to detail the glories and honor of that day as well in Isaiah chapter 22. Well, the key of David here on the risen Lord's shoulder, they were big, heavy iron keys in those days.

Well, it means that the key of David on the risen Lord's shoulder means profoundly more than access and egress to the earthly temple. It is the very presence of God now in the heavenly temple to which we have access, courtesy of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, who opened those doors through his death on the cross. David's greater son has fulfilled all of the covenant promises made to David, and he now bears authority to grant access and egress to his father's throne. We'll see this transpiring very soon.

How do you think this would have made the saints in Philadelphia feel, dear listener, since they had been shut out of the only place previously granted access by God, that is, his temple and its adjunct, the synagogue. Yes, those believers, those Jewish believers all over the Roman Empire, all over the civilized world, had been shut out. We see this in the book of Acts, too, as Paul and Silas and his fellow travelers were constantly thrown out of the synagogues unceremoniously, weren't they, for preaching the gospel, persecuted, beaten, threatened with death.

Well, this is happening then to Christian Jews all over the kingdom at this time, when they still, of course, wanted to worship at the temple or its adjunct, the synagogue. The Jews considered themselves stewards of his presence, didn't they? Jesus demonstrates that he is the true, holy, and faithful steward of the presence. The Jews were no longer stewards of the presence. No, not the temple, not the synagogue, anymore, but the doors of the heavenly temple had been opened, and Jesus demonstrates clearly that he is the true, holy, and faithful steward of the presence.

Our Lord then assures them of a fact seen in the other churches. He says, I know your works, right? That's a constant refrain we see all through the seven letters to the churches. They are expected to be characterized by good works, and this is one of the weapons that we have to take dominion of our world for the Lord Jesus Christ is our good works. I know your works, he says, and that they are implicitly full and complete in his sight is shown by what he has done with the key that is in his possession.

Our Lord says, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. Oh, what a powerful and profoundly beautiful image that is. There's no persecutor, there's no anti-Christ Christian in the world that can keep you from the presence of the living Lord. Though they would love to, the Jews of Philadelphia are not able to shut that open door to the presence of the Father because it is spiritual, it is heavenly, it is invisible, and it is precisely because it is the very one they hate and crucified, these Jews, the very one they hate and crucified who is opening the door and whose saints they persecute.

It's this one who holds the key of David to the presence of the Father. In fact, it is they who are shut out of his presence, isn't it? And so it is that the way things look on earth are not always how they are in heaven. This is one of the constant motifs of the book of Revelation. The persecuted saints may think that things are chaotic and abysmal and that the Lord has forgotten them or does not see, but the book of Revelation is written in part to reassure all of us, the saints in the first century also, that God is not ignorant of our circumstances.

He does see. In fact, he is weaving and closely knitting together the circumstances of each and every saint into a great tapestry in the life of the church with full knowledge and full sovereign control of all the circumstances as chaotic and as meaningless as they may seem to us here on the ground, on the earth. It's not so in heaven. We also see one of the great motifs of the book of Revelation is that of oscillation. That is, we move back and forth from heaven and earth precisely so we can see these things.

What may transpire on earth may seem chaotic and meaningless. God does not see, but when we oscillate back up to heaven, we see that God does see. In fact, he is sovereignly ordaining all that comes to pass on the earth so that it serves his purposes and our good. The way things look on earth, therefore, are not always how they are in the heavenlies. And our Lord notes his cognizance of their earthly circumstances when he says here in the letter to the church in Philadelphia, I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

That shows full knowledge of the life of the church in Philadelphia. They are not masters of the trade guilds in Philadelphia, nor are they elders in the synagogues of the region. The saints of the church in Philadelphia have little power. Despite this, they have spiritual power. They have kept his word.

That is, they have obeyed what he commands, and they have not denied his name. That is, they have been faithful. They have been faithful marturos. They have been a faithful witness. That's the idea of marturos.

You can hear the derivative in our English language for martyr. Martyrs were originally witnesses to Christ and his gospel who were then slain. And those two things came to be associated very closely together in the one word martyr. Witnesses who die for their witness. And they have been faithful witnesses when challenged to confess precisely who is their Lord.

Not Caesar, no, but Christ. Because of the faithful witness of the saints of Christ in Philadelphia, Christ himself will witness to them before their persecutors. And our Lord is emphatic on this point. He says, behold, whenever that word occurs in Revelation, we're meant to look in wonder. What does he then call their persecutors?

He says, I will make those of the synagogue of the synagogue of God's children on a different but equally valid path. No, not like dispensationalists. Are they of the synagogue of God's chosen people who will get to heaven by keeping the law they were given? No. Were they the synagogue of Israel with different promises and a different destiny than the church, like dispensationalism says?

No. They are called a synagogue of Satan. I think this identifies their true Lord and Savior. The saints in Philadelphia do the things of their Lord, and the Jews of Philadelphia do the things of their Lord. It's even as Jesus says, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Unquote from John chapter eight, our Lord's words that the Jews of Philadelphia are of their lying father. Satan is reaffirmed who say they are Jews and are not, but lie, our Lord says. Here they're characterized as liars like their father, Satan, who are the true Jews.

Oh, it is the Christian saints. Dear listener, they are the true Jews. And here we have interpretive truth that the church is the new Israel. Let me say this again for all of you dispensationalists out there who make a separation, a separate people of Jews and the church. Here in this text, we have interpretive truth that the church is the new Israel.

If Jews by blood and heritage are not true Jews, then who are true Jews? Implicit here is that true Jews are those who believe in and confess the Messiah foretold by Israel and the prophets that is Jesus the Christ. These are true Jews. Israelites who deny this, but still claim to be Jews are not being truthful. They are liars, according to the Lord himself.

The church is perfectly contiguous with Israel. This is a point that has to be made time and time again, dear listener. The church is perfectly contiguous with Israel. Israel's covenants and promises, law, worship, even from their race, according to the flesh, as Paul so poignantly points out, is the Christ himself. All culminate in the same Christ.

The Bible knows nothing of replacement theology, as it so derisively puts traditional covenant theology. The Bible knows nothing of replacement theology that is in Gentile theology over the centuries. The church has replaced Israel as God's chosen people. No, no. On the contrary, the church as it is today has grown organically out of Israel.

Her covenants are our covenants. Israel's covenants are our covenants. Her Messiah is our Messiah. Israel is the church of the old covenant and the church is the Israel of the new covenant. This is an easy way to remember precisely what has transpired.

Israel is the church of the old covenant and the church is the Israel of the new covenant. This text asserts in no uncertain terms that there is no distinction between Israel and the church. Ultimately and finally, as articulated by dispensationalists, the church flourishes and blossoms organically and naturally from the roots of Israel. And this needs to be strongly maintained. And this is one of those texts, um, that is a very much a proof text towards that end.

Um, well, this has been pastor David Bass at new Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian church. And, uh, I want to encourage you again to consider, uh, coming to our Bible study, the community Bible study. It's not a new Geneva's Bible study. It is a community Bible study on the apocalypse on the book of Revelation where we can sit down, talk Turkey, talk over these issues and go over text time. And again, it's going to be team taught by myself and pastor Mike Gilea of share the sun ministries.

And it's going to begin Thursday, October 10 from seven until eight 15, promptly beginning at seven, promptly concluding at eight 15. And, uh, we're going to begin the study and it's going to go at least through December up until Christmas. Uh, but we're beginning once again, a community Bible study on the book of revelation, the apocalypse. It's going to begin Thursday, October 10, running from seven PM until eight 15 PM. And the, uh, uh, the locale has not been chosen yet.

That's going to come soon. And I'm going to be team teaching that with pastor Mike Gilea of share the sun ministries. This has been pastor David Bass at new Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian church. And we invite you to join us for worship on Sunday at 10 AM at one on one fourth street on the corner of fourth and Boulevard where I'm preaching through the book of revelation. Even now, what a joy it's been very fruitful.

And, um, you can call us for more information or some feedback to give me some feedback. If you like a positive or negative, I learned by both area code 208-523-0196. Once again, that's area code 208-523-0196.