10 March 2023 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“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.” Revelations 3:8
An open door may often be the only door not taken by the broader portion of society who reject God and His counsel. They pass by that Open Door set before them as if in a daze of unknowing. In fact, many ncver even notice that Door for their eyes are blinded by the things of this world. That Door, of course, is Christ Himself who is the Door to the Ark of our Salvation. “I am the door of the sheep.” John 10:7
The tears of the world blind the sinner’s eye to the tears of joy that can be had in Christ. A favorite illustration of that fact is found in the story of the servant-girl, Hagar and her son, Ishmael, (Genesis 21) whom Abraham sent out into the wilderness of Beersheba provisioned only with a measure of bread and a bottle of water. When the water was exhausted, the boy was perishing rom thirst. Hagar left him under a bush and went an arrow’s shot away and wept bitterly. The Angel of the Lord communed with her there and opened her eyes. Only then did she see the well of water that was before here all along. We are too often blind to the blessing that God strows in our path because our eyes are blind to the spiritual and wide open to the worldly.
Christ is our Open Door just as the door of the Ark of Noah was the only path to salvation from the Flood. That open door was ridiculed and scandalized until the first drops of rain and gushing waters of the deep began to overflow the land. It had never rained before and the great masses without the Ark were terrified, but before those waters appeared, God Himself – not Noah – closed the door. This is confirmation that no man can shut the door God sets before us but God Himself. “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.”
The sinner is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2) and has been from the moment Adam partook of the forbidden fruit. A dead man is blind to all else but the darkness of the worldly tomb that imprisons him. He will never be able to see the beauty of holiness until God opens his eyes to the Light of the World. The Holy Spirit penetrates those dead eyes, ears, and heart and utters the name of the dead to “Come forth!” As he does come forth from the tomb of the soul, the restraining shrouds fall away and his feet then trod upon the free ground of the blessed of the Lord.
I will relate in paraphrase a description of the salvation of the elect of God given by Dr. Charles Spurgeon more than one hundred years ago. Spurgeon describes life as a busy thoroughfare filled with pedestrians going to and fro along the path of life. Alongside the Broad Way of the world is a great wall barring entry to all to its interior. In the wall is a simple Door which is open to any who will enter therein. But most of the passersby do not even take note of the Door. Their focus is upon the cheap charms of the world and even the tears of their misery. But seemingly by chance, an occasional pedestrian will stop and take note of the Door and, out of a powerful impetus of the Spirit, will enter in at the Door.
Once inside the Door, the blessed elect person will look back to the great wall over the Door and read these words: “Welcome, beloved of the Lord, chosen from before the Foundation of the world, to the Kingdom of God.
The entry through the Door of salvation was not an accidental decision, but one informed of the Holy Spirit, and so are all who enter in at the open Door set before them. To others, it seems to easy to believe for they are blinded to the benefits of salvation in Christ.
The Door is a Hidden Door to the reprobate sinner whose wickedness of soul and spirit will allow no acknowledgment of a God he knows to be real, but he denies the existence of that God through the vain imagination of his heart until his spiritual death is manifested in the second death of the body and soul.
If your heart is set upon the DOOR (that is Christ), you will enter not fail to enter that Door.
