"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:These things saith He that is Holy, He that
is True, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and
no man openeth; I know thy works:behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can
shut it:for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name" (Rev.
3:7,8).

How much we need to remember that "these things saith He that is Holy, He that is True." As we
think of the Church in its scattered, divided condition, and as we would desire to see it restored,
we would ask, "What are we to do for its restoration?" Shall we proclaim to all Christians that it
is the will of God that His people should be together? Shall we spread the Lord’s table, free from
all sectarian names and terms of communion and fling wide open our doors and invite all that truly
love the Lord to come together? For in fact the "one loaf" upon the table does bear witness that
we are "one loaf, one body" (1 Cor. 10:17 JND); and there is no other body that faith can own
but the body of Christ. Why should we not then do this?

1 answer:"Tell them by all means that the Lord has welcome for all His own:but tell them it is
the ‘Holy and True’ who welcomes, and that He cannot give up His nature." How has the true
Church become the invisible Church? Has it been without sin on her part? Is it her misfortune and
not her fault? Take the guidance of these seven epistles in the Book of Revelation and trace the
descent from the loss of first love in Ephesus to the sufferance of the woman Jezebel in Thyatira,
and on through dead Sardis to the present time. Can we just ignore the past and simply, as if
nothing had happened, begin again?

Suppose your invitation to "all Christians" were accepted and you were able really to assemble
all the members of Christ at the table of the Lord_to bring them together with their jarring views,
their various states of soul, their entanglements with the world, their evil associations. How far,
do you suppose, would the Lord’s table answer to the character implied in its being the table of
the Lord? How far would He be indeed owned and honored in your thus coming together? With
the causes of all the scattering not searched out and judged, what would your gathering be but a
defiance of the holy discipline by which the Church was scattered? Would it not be but another
Babel?

Can you think that visible unity is so dear to Christ that He should desire it apart from true
cleansing and fellowship in the truth? Surely this address to Philadelphia is completely in
opposition to all such thoughts. It surely is not without significance that the Lord presents Himself
here as the Holy and True.

Those who will gather as did the Philadelphian saints of old, gather unto Christ. And it is Christ
who gathers. Those who have a common faith, a common joy, a common occupation are gathered
together by Him to form that which is the outward sign of the spiritual bond that unites us. He
who knows what gathering at the Lord’s table means knows how communion at that table can be
hindered by the presence of what is not communion. How is the power of the Spirit hindered by
those who have unexercised consciences and have hearts unreceptive to divine things! The

Scripture rule for times of declension is that we should walk "with them that call on the Lord out
of a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2:22). The way to find these is not to advertise for them, but to "follow
righteousness, faith, charity, peace," walking on the road in which they are walking.

It results from this that if we really seek the blessing of souls, we shall guard with more
carefulness, not with less, the entrance into fellowship; we shall consider Him who is Holy and
True. Careless reception is the cause of abundant trouble and may lead to general decline. "Evil
communications corrupt good manners" (1 Cor. 15:33). Men cannot walk together except they
are agreed. When trial comes, those who have never been firm of purpose, never, perhaps,
convinced of the divine warrant for the position they have taken, scatter and flee from it with
reckless haste, carrying with them wherever they go an evil report of what they have turned their
backs upon. Such persons are, generally speaking, outside of any hope of recovery and often
develop into the bitter enemies of the truth.

We are incurring a great responsibility if we press or encourage people to take a position for
which they are not ready; in which, therefore, they act without faith. There is great danger in
leading others who do not have an exercised conscience to imitate a faith that is not their own.
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23). No wonder there are wrecks all along the track
of a movement for which faith is so constantly required, and in which so many are endeavoring
to walk without faith. Let us remember that it is the Holy and True that is seeking fellowship with
us and that nothing but that which answers to this character can abide the test that will surely
come.

(From A Divine Movement and Our Path with God Today, by F. W. Grant.)