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Somebody at the end of this age will sit down with the Savior on His throne.  They will be rulers with Him during the 1,000 year reign right here on earth.  This is promised by Him.

This promise of kingly rulership for some of His followers is conditional.  During the last age of the church just before His return, His followers will be lukewarm in their service to Him.  They will think that because they are affluent in material things, that they are rich in spiritual things.  They will take pride in “knowing God,” and they will say that they spiritually “have need of nothing.”  But they do not know that they are in His eyes “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked” (Rev. 3: 14-17).

They do not know that their faith in Him is a poor approximation, a poor substitute for His vibrant faith.  They do not have the higher richer knowledge of His plan and purpose.  Consequently they are spiritually blind and naked.

And so, He counsels them to  buy from Him three things that will correct their spiritual deficiencies: “gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white raiment, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (v. 18).

And then He makes an astounding promise to them.  If anyone in this end time age hears His voice concerning these matters, and hears His knock on their door, He will come in and have a feast with them, sharing intimate details of His soon coming kingdom.  And then the promise: “To him that overcomes 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” (v. 22).  Now you’ve got to have an ear that is attuned for these things.  He says if you do, then hear what the Spirit is saying to you about these things (v. 22).

So, the first thing we need is the “gold tried in the fire” (1).  We know that this gold is our faith and belief in God.  We believe in Him, having never seen Him nor the outcome of His kingdom plan, for faith is the “evidence of things not seen” (2).  It is like the Holy Spirit, which is invisible but is “leading us into all truth” and thereby comforts us as the Comforter” (3).

The “gold tried in the fire” that we are to “buy” from the Savior is the purification of our faith/belief through trials and temptations, “if need be.”  Most of us will need the times of  “chastening” that He will give unto His elect–the ones who He has chosen to sit with Him in His throne (4).  This chastening is in the form of correction.

This fire that purifies our faith is much like the pruning of the vine that Christ speaks about (5).  And what He lops off of us is the old erroneous concepts about Him that we have learned from those who taught us in the past.