"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 3:20.

 We are admonished in the verse preceding our text, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." It is through these loving rebukes and Fatherly chastisements that Jesus is knocking on our door.

Our text says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice." What is the voice we hear? Jesus is crying out unto us, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."

Rebuking is not fault finding but bringing sin home with conviction in the conscience. Until there is conviction of sin, there will be no repentance, i.e., a true remorse over and a turning from sin. Therefore Jesus shows the intent in sending these rebukes and this Fatherly chastening is that we might be "zealous of good works," TIT 2:14, and repent.

PRO 3:12 says, "For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth." Do loving fathers chasten their sons just because they are sons; or is it to break the rebellion in their hard hearts?

HEB 12:6-8 says, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all [God's children] are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."

The dealings of God toward the sons of men have always puzzled God's people until they are brought into the sanctuary. Asaph said in PSA 73:2-20, "But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

The door of Asaph's heart was opened when he was in the sanctuary and was given to "Behold" the end of the wicked. Then Asaph realized that this world is not the place of punishment for the wicked, nor the place of rest for God's people.

The Lord does not compel men to serve Him against their will. PSA 110:3 says, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning." As the Lord brings His people through the furnace, the world loses its tinsel. Christ becomes the altogether lovely, "...the chiefest among ten thousand," SON 5:10.

When the door of our hearts are opened we hear Jesus' voice in the slightest rebuke or stroke of chastening. Then our hearts cry out as in SON 5:2, "It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night."

Then we hear Jesus knocking on our door in all sickness, poverty and bereavement. Those loving rebukes and admonitions of the gospel, which were sent by the loving hand of our heavenly Father, become admonitions to be "zealous therefore, and repent."

When the Lord has placed us in the furnace, our hard hearts will melt before Him. As we begin to hear the gospel call to repent, "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left," ISA 30:21-22. Amen.