He knocks...will you answer?

Continuing with our Prophecy study- the book of Revelation. May our God bless us with understanding, may the Holy Spirit open our HEARTS and MINDS to all TRUTH! Guide us, please, Father, guide us. May the grace and mercy of our Savior be ours as we study to know His will in ALL things!

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Excerpt from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith

Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

The Token of Love.--

As strange as it may seem, the token of love is chastisement.

"As many as I love, I rebuke, and chas-

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ten."

 If we are without chastisement, we are not sons. (Hebrews 12: 8.)

"A general law of His gracious economy," says Augustus C. Thompson, "is here set forth. . . . As all need chastisement in some measure, they in some measure receive it, and thus have proof of the Saviour's attachment.

This is a hard lesson to learn, and believers are dull scholars; yet here and throughout God's word and providence it stands, that trials are His benedictions, and that no child escapes the rod.

The incorrigibly misshapen and coarse-grained blocks are rejected, whilst those chosen for the glorious structure are subjected to the chisel and the hammer.

There is no cluster on the true vine but must pass through the winepress. 'For myself,' said an old divine under affliction-- 'for myself, I bless God I have observed and felt so much mercy in this angry dispensation of God that I am almost transported. I am sure highly pleased with thinking how infinitely sweet His mercies are, when His judgments are so gracious.' In view, then, of the origin and design of the chastisements you receive. 'Be zealous and repent.' Lose no time; lose not a blow of the rod, but repent at once. Be fervent in spirit. Such is the first appliance of encouragement."

Be Zealous and Repent.--

Although, as we have seen, the condition represented by coldness is preferable to one of lukewarmness, yet that is not a state in which our Lord ever desires to find us. We are never exhorted to seek that state. There is a far better one which we are counseled to attain; and that is to be zealous, to be fervent, and to have our hearts all aglow in the service of our Master.

Christ Knocking at the Door.--

"Here is the heart of hearts," says Augustus C. Thompson. "Notwithstanding their offensive attitude, their unlovely character, such is His love to their souls that He humbles Himself to solicit the privilege of making them blessed. 'Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.' Why does He? Not because He is without home elsewhere.

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. . . Among the mansions in His Father's house there is not one entrance closed to Him. He is the life of every heart, the light in every eye, the song on every tongue, in glory. But He goes round from door to door in Laodicea. He stands at each, and knocks, because He came to seek and to save that which is lost, because He cannot give up the purpose of communicating eternal life to as many as the Father hath given Him, and because He cannot become known to the inmate unless the door be opened and a welcome given Him.

Have you bought a piece of ground, have you bought five yoke of oxen, is your hat in your hand, and do you pray do be excused? He knocks and knocks. But you cannot receive company at present; you are worn out with labor; you have wheeled round the sofa; you are making yourself comfortable, and you send word you are engaged. He knocks and knocks. . . . It is the hour for church prayer meeting or for monthly concert; there is opportunity to pay a Christian visit to an individual or a family; but you move not. . . . Oh, nauseous lukewarmness! Oh, fatal worldliness! The Lord of glory comes all the way from His celestial palace--comes in poverty, in sweat, in blood--comes to the door of a professed friend, who owes all to Him, and cannot get in!--comes to rescue a man whose house is on fire, and he will not admit Him! Oh, the height, the depth, or Jesus Christ's forbearance! Even the heathen Publius received Paul and lodged him three days courteously. Shall nominal Christians tell the Lord of apostles they have no room for Him?"