Alive in Appearance Only

Transcript

GR 1512
01-04-09
Alive in Appearance Only
Revelation 3:1-6
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of Revelation this evening, we're ready to pick up with chapter 3. And as you remember chapters 2-3 are the letters to the seven churches, well-known section of the book of Revelation. Letters to seven specific, historical churches of the time, addressing actual situations in those churches. But these seven churches were selected by the Lord of the church, Jesus Christ, because they would serve to represent, if you will, local churches down through history. As we've noted again and again, there were more than these churches in the Roman province of Asia, what we consider as modern day Turkey. But these seven were chosen not only because Christ wanted to address the problems in these specific churches, but because what is contained in each of these letters will have significant impact and importance for churches down through history. And that's why each of these letters concludes as the close of chapter 2 verse 29, the letter to the church at Thyatira, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So everyone with spiritual ears to hear and understand the truth of God needs to pay attention to what is said to each of these churches. You'll note, everyone who has an ear to hear what the Spirit says, he is to listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches, plural. So it's not only for those churches in their historical setting almost 2000 years ago, but it's for us today and for us as a local church to learn from.

We come to the church at Sardis. And this is a sad church because it is a church in terrible spiritual condition. It is a church that has made adjustments to fit into the world. And it has a certain reputation of being an effective church. But Christ's evaluation is they have no life, they are dead. The church from its beginning, here we are at the end of the first century. We are about 95 A.D. when John wrote the book of Revelation, and already churches as we have seen in the first four are succumbing in various ways to the pressures of the world, the flesh and the devil. And the church at Sardis has succumbed to the pressure of conformity. Somehow to have a balance, and usually it is a pressure that comes with being effective. We hear so many criticisms of the church in the world, even from within. People in the churches criticize the church and say, we're not effective, we're talking to ourselves. The world is not interested in the church as it is functioning today. It has lost its impact, its significance. And we start thinking, we should ............ , we have empty seats, we ought to be doing something else to get more people in. What good is it if we as believers just get together and talk about the Word of God? And so we begin to look for ways to fit into the world. The criticisms of the world sting and they criticize us for being hypocritical, they criticize us for being narrow, they criticize us for always being negative and wanting to talk about sin, about hell. We get sensitive to that and say, well maybe we should tone that down. We still believe it, but we don't have to always be talking about it. We could have a more positive face to the world. So they are not only thinking about what we are against, but what we are for. And these kinds of pressures begin to push in on us and we look for ways to adjust to be more successful, really what we're saying is more acceptable to the world, at the same time and not denying the truths of scripture directly.

Come back to I Corinthians 4. The Corinthians were another church experiencing the same kind of pressure. The Apostle Paul was too rigid, too narrow, too confrontational, too much of a troublemaker. And he had to respond to this. He is a steward of the Word of God. He opened this chapter by saying, let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. First of all I want to be clear, this is what I am. In this case moreover it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it's a very small thing that I may be examined by you or any human court. In other words, you may not like what I'm doing, you may not agree with the way I am doing it, what I am preaching. But you understand, the most important thing to me is to be faithful to the One who has entrusted me with His truth. And moreover I can't even accurately examine myself, the Lord is the One who will examine me is what he goes on to say through verse 5.

Then he comes to verse 8, you are already filled. And note this word already, you are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us and indeed I wish that you had become kings so that we might reign with you. You see this basic sarcasm—you've arrived, we haven't, like the kingdoms here. And you're enjoying it but we're not, we apostles. Something is wrong. I think God has exhibited us apostles last of all as men condemned to death because we've become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak but you are strong; you are distinguished but we are without honor. For this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless. We toil, working with our own hands. When we are reviled we bless, when we are persecuted we endure, when we are slandered we try to conciliate. We've become the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

Then he says, I'm not writing to shame you, that's not the goal. I want to admonish you, I love you, my children. You know, I became your father in the gospel, I'm the one who was privileged to bring you the message of Christ. I get no pleasure out of putting you to shame. I can rejoice like we do for our children when they do well. There has to be reality. And what does he want them to do? Verse 16, I exhort you, be imitators of me. You see why it's the description that he has given of himself. We are fools, verse 10, for Christ's sake. We are weak, we are without honor, we're hungry, we're thirsty, we're poorly clothed, we're roughly treated. We have to work with our own hands, there's not enough support in the ministry of God's truth to sustain us. We are exhibited as men condemned to death. Become imitators of us.

You see the Corinthian church had made some adjustments so they could fit into the world better and be admired by the world. And you know if you're going to go in the world's viewpoint, they were a lot more successful than the apostles. Maybe the apostles ought to learn something from the Corinthians. You apostles don't get any honor, how are you going to have an effective ministry if the world doesn't honor you, doesn't respect you. Your own testimony is you are without honor, but the Corinthian church, they're a distinguished church. You see what has happened? The compromise has come at great cost. That's why Paul started out this chapter by saying, you understand that we are servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries, the truths that God has revealed to us. It is of first importance that we be faithful.

Remember what the church is. It's the pillar and support of the truth. The Corinthians lost sight of that, so they were making compromises and adjustments, and they started little things and pretty soon that attitude permeates the church. And the church then becomes shaped by the world and what the world thinks the church ought to be. Look at the church today in the world, becoming more and more involved in social action, in helping the poor, in dealing with AIDS. Why? The world thinks that's wonderful, that's what a church ought to do, it ought to be helping the poor. What does the church do? It ought to be concerned about people who have AIDS, it ought to be ........... Well, wait a minute, who says that's what it ought to be? The church is the pillar and support of the truth. The truth of God has been passed down to us and entrusted to us. That's what we are about—the truth. But that's not what the world wants. Join with us in helping to deal with poverty, that's important. Help us to educate children so they learn to read, deal with the blight of AIDS that is causing the death of thousands of people. And there we can do “good” things. Not denying our theology, and also having the respect of the world, the honor of the world. This is the church at Sardis.

Come back to Revelation 3. It's a church of great reputation, still well thought of. If you had stopped at the other six churches, they would have probably spoken well of the church at Sardis. It had a good name, oh yes, that's a good work, that's a good church. The problem is it's living on past reputation, it's living on what it was yesterday not what it is today. And so the reality is totally different.

There is no doctrinal controversy in the church at Sardis, there are no moral conflicts, there is no evidence of opposition from the Jews, form pagans, from false prophets, false teachers, Nicolaitans, all these things that may have come up in other churches that we've already looked at. They are not having that kind of trouble. It's a church that has peace. Isn't that what we want? Look at this, they'll know us by our love and here is a church that has peace. The problem is it's not the peace of having been spiritually victorious, it's the peace of death, Jesus said. You don't have conflicts, you don't have trouble with false teachers, you don't have trouble with the Jews attacking you and plaguing you. You don't even have any moral problems. You've just settled in to this life of death. What a contradiction, what a sad state of affairs.

The city of Sardis, we've moved 30 miles southeast of Thyatira. So we've gone up in our travels and started back down in this inverted “U”, and we'll finish it off by going back to the first church. We've traveled 30 miles south and east, we're inland now and we're about 50 miles due east of Ephesus. So we've moved inland from Ephesus and if you were going to travel straight across from Ephesus it would be about 50 miles to Sardis. It had a glorious past, a unique location. In its original construction it was built on a high plateau, a mountain region there. And only really one way into the city. They built it on this high plateau, walls coming down 1500 feet, the side, and one narrow road coming in. So it was a city easily defended because there was no access but this one narrow road, so easy to hold off coming armies. At a later time the city was expanded to the lower regions. A city that has had a couple of serious defeats. Since it was so impregnable, twice it had fallen because it had not paid attention to its vulnerability.

In 549 B.C., so we're almost 600 years before the book of Revelation is written here, the city had been conquered. How had it been conquered? An army coming and a soldier found a way to scale the wall 1500 hundred feet up. So one by one the soldiers scaled the wall. There was nobody watching. One single soldier at the top could have turned back the army at the bottom, but they didn't have one guard at that point because nobody can come up that wall. And one by one the soldiers came up the wall, infiltrated the city, conquered the city. Several hundred years later, about 218 B.C. the exact same thing happened. So keep that in mind, it's going to come up as a background for some instruction to this church in a moment.

Like the city it had its glory in the past. It is still functioning as a city but it is a city that has declined significantly from its glory. And the church at Sardis is a church whose glory is in the past. What a sad thing. There are churches like that, their good days are the past days. This church didn't know its good days were the past days, but Christ is going to make that clear in His comments to them.

This is one of the most severe of all the letters. The first four letters began with Christ commending them, even when He is going to give them sharp rebuke He first commends them for their good works. But there is no commendation for good works to this church. He begins with stinging rebuke about their dead spiritual condition.

Note how the letter begins, chapter 3 verse 1, to the angel of the church in Sardis, write. And as the other letters do, it comes and Christ is identified in a certain way. He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars says this. And consistent with the other letters this identification goes back to chapter 1. And in chapter 1 verse 4, John, to the seven churches who are in Asia, grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come. And from the seven Spirits who are before His throne. So now that aspect of the description of Christ in chapter 1 is carried over because it is this particular aspect of that description and it is important to the church at Sardis. The One who has the seven Spirits of God. And as we've noted in our study back then, the seven Spirits of God are representative manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God.

Look over in chapter 4 verse 5, out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne. These are the seven Spirits of God. Then in chapter 5 verse 6 are the seven eyes. I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth. You see different representation—seven lamps burning with fire, seven eyes. All representing the seven Spirits, which is a representation of the Holy Spirit of God.

Come back to Zechariah 3. And again, we won't go into all the details of this passage, but you see where this is picked up from in the Old Testament. Remember we've noted that one of the difficulties people have with the book of Revelation, there are hundreds of references to the Old Testament. Not direct quotes, but references to the Old Testament. And often our unfamiliarity with the Old Testament leaves us wondering, where does this come from. But Zechariah the prophet has seen a vision with these elements in it. We'll pick up with verse 8, I'm going to bring in my Servant, the Branch, which of course is a reference to Jesus Christ. For behold the stone I have set before Joshua. And Joshua the high priest has been seen here standing before the angel of the Lord as the chapter began. On one stone are seven eyes. And remember in Revelation 5:6 the seven eyes represented the seven Spirits of God, which are representative of the Holy Spirit. We'll see more of that, we looked at that in Revelation 1:4.

Come to Zechariah 4:2. The angel, revealing this to Zechariah, said to me, what do you see? I said, I see and behold a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps. So here is one lampstand and it's that seven-pronged lampstand. And the lamps on each one are those oil lamps that would be there, that would be lit. Seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on top of it. Jump down to verse 6, then he said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord. And so these are representations of the Holy Spirit of God, seven-fold manifestation of His perfection.

You come down to verse 10, for who has despised the day of small things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the eyes of the Lord which range to and fro throughout the earth. Remember when the book of Genesis opened up? The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. These are the eyes of the Lord that roam to and fro throughout the earth, the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the triune godhead. And here serving as the eyes of God and His knowledge of all going on. So this seven-fold Spirit, a representation of the Holy Spirit. It sets it in the context of the work of Christ, the One who is the servant of the Lord, the Branch of the Lord. And we'll be back here in Zechariah in a little bit.

So come back to Revelation 3. Jesus Christ is the One who has the seven spirits of God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit always work in harmony. Remember Jesus said it was important and necessary that He ascend to the Father so that He could send the Holy Spirit, continuing the work of God. The different persons of the Godhead having different roles that they are carrying out.

He has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. The seven stars represent the messengers to each of these churches. Back in chapter 1 verse 16, in His right hand He held seven stars. Come down to verse 20, as for them mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, or the messengers. Remember the word angel means a messenger. Sometimes it is a heavenly messenger, angels from heaven; sometimes it is human beings who are serving as messengers. Same Greek word would be used. In chapter 2, the letter to the church at Ephesus, verse 1 began, to the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand. So you have a similar message in chapter 3 verse 1 to Sardis, he has the Holy Spirit and He has these messengers of the churches. So He's the One who knows all and has authority over all. And He is speaking to the church that is under His authority through its messenger.

I know your deeds. This is the way each letter begins. I know your deeds, this is the basic Greek word works. I know your works, I know what you are doing. He has full knowledge of the true condition. Remember Jeremiah 17:9, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it. I the Lord search the heart. That's why in I Corinthians 4 where we were a moment ago Paul said, I can't even judge myself, I'll have to wait until the day the Lord judges even the motives of my heart. Only He can do that. So here is the One, I know your works. And I don't just know what can be seen, I know the motives behind what you are doing, I know your works from the motivation, the thoughts behind it to the actual deeds that are done.

Now you would expect here like in the letters to the other churches that you've done this good thing and that good thing. I know your works. You have a name that you are alive. But you are dead. No commendation. You have a reputation of being a church that is spiritually alive, a true church comprised of true believers. But all you have is a name, the reputation. But you are dead. There is no truth to that reputation. May be a carryover from a bygone day, but it's not true today. Some of you familiar with the history of the decline of denominations and you know what happens. You have a church with believers and over time those believers get older, children are raised in the church, other people join, but sometimes they are not born again. Sometimes they are just people raised in the church, young people who grow up to adulthood, they just conform. And we're excited, they're good kids, they don't do bad things. But they've never experienced the life changing power of God's salvation. People come in who are good people, we're glad to have them join our church but they've never truly been born again. Now what happens? A generation, the next generation comes and pretty soon the bulk of the church is unbelievers. This happened to the church at Sardis. It has a name. They said if you had stopped at Ephesus and said, do you know anything about a good church? Oh yeah, there's a good church in Sardis. That would be the evaluation of people, that would be the evaluation of other believers who might look at it. But the evaluation of the Lord of the church is they are spiritually dead. That's a church without life.

You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. It doesn't mean there are no believers left in the church. Our background was Methodist and went to a Methodist church. The first one I remember going to was pastored by one of my relatives. He was dead. I went there, our family went there, none of us were saved. After we got saved we continued in another Methodist church when we moved to another part of the state of Pennsylvania. We met believers in that church, but you know what? Most of the church didn't know the Lord. The pastor of the church sat down in our home and acknowledged, he knew the Lord and seemed to give a clear testimony. He knew the terrible state of the church but he says, I can't do anything. At my age I can't give up the retirement of my future and make an issue. The church was dead. There can be a few believers sprinkled in, there are, but Jesus' evaluation of the church overall, it's a dead church. From what He says there is indication there are some true believers in this church. But the overall condition of the church is it's comprised of unbelievers at this point.

You have a reputation, a name you are alive but you are dead. A number of commentators referred to these as nominal Christians. These aren't people denying the faith, living godless lives, indulging in immorality, promoting false doctrines. They wouldn't have a name that they are alive if they were doing those things. You see these people have an external conformity, they are what we call nominal Christians—Christians in name only.

He gives them five commands—wake up, verse 2; strengthen, verse 2; remember, verse 3; keep; repent. Those are the five commands. Let's just look at them. Verse 2, wake up. Remember I told that twice in the history of the city at Sardis they had not watched, they had not been alert, they had not paid attention. The city had been conquered. That's what he is telling this church—wake up, pay attention, keep watch, get alert, become watchful. This is a command here. Do something you are not doing. Pay attention. This church has died and even the believers aren't paying attention. You know you just settle in and even true believers get comfortable, because these believers around us live good lives, they're good people, they don't deny the faith. I mean, what's the problem? Why are you always so critical? I mean, they're good people, they grew up in this church. Do you think they'd stay here if they really didn't know the Lord, love the Lord? We have all kinds of reasons and we don't realize we settle down and become comfortable with it as it is. Wake up.

Strengthen the things that remain. Strong command here. First command was a present tense command. They need to constantly be alert, be watching. We get the English name Gregory from this Greek word, gregoran, to be watchful, to be alert, to be awake. Strengthen. Another command, aorist command, sharp command here. The things that remain. So you see as serious as the condition is, it's not hopeless. There are things that remain, things that are about to die, verse 2. Strengthen the things that remain which were about to die. They can salvage things if they act now. They've not crossed the line, so to speak, of no return. Jesus Christ has intervened and called them to attention. Commands them now to strengthen the things that remain. True believers need to take hold here. There are remnants of the truth, it's a church that still claims to believe the Bible. We need to stop trying to present it in a way that will not be offensive, our goal not to offend people. Our goal is to present the truth with such clarity that if people don't submit to it, they will be offended. There is no negotiating. This is the Word of God, this is His truth, you are lost and without hope in the world. Even if you are part of this church and have grown up in this church, apart from Christ and believing the gospel and submitting your life to Him and living for Him, you have no hope. You are dead in your trespasses and sins. Strengthen the things that remain.

What does He say? I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God. You know what happened here? It's not that they didn't do works, deeds, that's the word deeds, works. It should be done but they did not meet God's standard with doing them. We need to be very careful. We've lowered the standard and we find it acceptable, but that doesn't count. You'll note what Christ says. I have not found your deeds completed, fulfilled, everything that they must be in the sight of my God. Now this is a serious matter. Whose evaluation of the church matters? That's why we started out in I Corinthians 4, Paul says I have to remind you what I am. I am a servant of Christ, a steward of the mysteries of God. I must be found faithful and He will evaluate even my motives. The church at Sardis had lost sight of that. We're a good church and we're a successful church and we don't have a lot of trouble that some other churches do because we've learned how to get along. Now we know we don't have to battle and fight over every little thing and we don't have to be in people's faces about sin all the time and we don't have to talk about hell. We believe in a hell, that's fine, we don't have to talk about it all the time. People don't have to come to this church and know we're going to hear about judgment, we're going to hear about sin, we're going to hear about condemnation. No, they can hear the positive things of the Word, they'll get to know that we have a God of love and we are a good people. I have not found our deeds completed. They weren't based upon faith, they weren't being produced in their lives by the Holy Spirit of God. They were deeds that were sufficient to give them a reputation, a name that they were alive. But when God judged them they were found deficient, there is no life to it.

So they had met a standard that was acceptable and even Christians evaluated them. Not acceptable in the sight of God. I wonder what the reputation of this church looked like after everybody read the letter to the church at Sardis, because remember everybody who had spiritual ears was to listen to what the Spirit was saying to each and all of these churches. That changes my opinion of the church at Sardis significantly. I've been recommending that church, I thought that was a good church, they have a great reputation but no reality, filled with dead people. And they need to make some changes and make them quickly.

Look at verse 3, so remember what you have received and heard. Remember. Back in the church at Ephesus the command was given in verse 5 of chapter 2, therefore remember from where you have fallen. The church at Sardis, chapter 3 verse 3, so remember what you have received and heard. They have to get back to getting serious about the Word of God. This is the decline that is so pervasive in the church and so deadly. It's that gradual, almost imperceptible decline and that moving away from that sold, firm emphasis on the Word of God. And that's what we are about in all aspects of our ministry because that is the ministry we have, a ministry of truth. A pulling back to soften it, to making it less of an issue. We downplay it, we fill with other things. And we think, we don't deny anything, we still believe it and our purpose is to present it and to present it in an appealing way.

I've shared with you and I tell you again and again but it stuck with me. Many years ago when I was studying for a while in a seminary on church growth and visiting growing churches and evaluating them and writing papers and interviewing staff members and so on. Visiting with the professor at the seminary that I was traveling with at the time, visiting these. And you know he said to me, these principles he was teaching, you know the beautiful thing about these principles, they work whatever your theology. You can build a church and it works whatever your theology. I never forgot that. I remember saying to him, yes, but what about truth? You know, I can build a big church if I preach the Word, I can build a big church if I don't preach the Word. I can build a big church if I believe this and teach this, I can build a big church if we do this. There are principles, the same principles though, everybody has to use. And that has become the pervasive thinking. I never thought it would take hold like it did. Thirty years later liberal denominations are using the principles and conservative Bible-believing churches are using the principles and they are growing because those principles work. But you know what? It's not the Spirit of God producing it in lives. I think of this message, I have not found your works completed, fulfilled, what they ought to be in the sight of my God. But look at what we have. But I have not found your works completed, fulfilled in the sight of my God. That's what matters.

So remember what you have received and heard, go back to truth of the gospel, the truth that has been passed on to you. Here you have the last surviving of the apostles, apostolic truth being passed on. Remember what you as a church got early on, at the beginning, how often. We don't have time to go to other places in the New Testament where churches are told, go back and remember the beginning. Individual believers, go back and remember the place the gospel had, the center. What happened? There are believers in this church at Sardis. Wake up, strengthen the things that remain, step forward, remember what you've received and heard. The dead people in this church aren't going to remember it, they never did receive it, they never did hear it with spiritual ears to hear. Believers need to wake up, take hold, stand, and keep it. Pay close attention to it, focus on it. Remember is a present command, a command in the present tense, present imperative. So is keep. You keep remembering what you've received, what you heard, and you keep it. That's the focus. You don't hold it lightly, you hold it tightly. This is what anyone who has life in the church has to do. Those with spiritual ears at Sardis could hear this, time to step forward. All of a sudden the peace of the church at Sardis now, things are going to change. Do you think the unbeliever takes well, now we're going to preach the Word.

I can give you some relative recent examples of young men who have gone into churches that attempted to preach the Word and were soon ushered out the door. You get spiritually dead people and you think when I go in to preach the Word they'll receive it. You know what? They have a name that they are Christians, but when they are confronted with the truth of the Word and its clarity, they don't like it. And they don't want to hear it. Now they don't say we don't like the Word of God and don't want to hear it, they say we don't like the way you do it, we don't like your emphasis, we don't like your lack of love. All he said was you're presenting the truth. I listened to these messages, I talked to these men and I said they are presenting the pure Word of God, and they are out on the street.

You keep it, you take hold of it, you stand for it, you hold on to it. You repent. Sharp command, repent. It's been told in chapter 2 several times to the churches, repent, repent. Repent means they change their minds, they change their actions here, they turn from their sinful condition. They are remembering and obeying the Word of God that had been given to them. This is what must be done. This is not my church, this is not your church. This is Christ's church, it was purchased with His blood. It's not about what we think should be done. I get so sick of all the plans and programs for growing a church. What happens if we preach the Word and let Christ build His church, let the Spirit of God take the Word of God and do the work that only He can do. I am not satisfied with that, I want more, I want something else, I want success. And soon the church has become something other than what the church is. And instead of being a place of life, it's a place of death. Repent.

What's the alternative? If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. If you will not, here is the alternative. If you don't wake up, I will come to you, come to you unexpectedly, come to you in judgment. This is a warning. We don't have time, just come over to Revelation 16, we'll just have time for one passage and we'll stay in Revelation. Revelation 16:15, behold I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame. In other words, prepared for the coming of Christ. Those who aren't prepared are going to judgment, condemnation and eternal hell. That's the warning here. Carrying it to the ultimate end. You will not be prepared for the judgment that I am going to be meting out, the judgment that will be associated with the kingdom that He will be establishing. Everything in Revelation has that kingdom that will come to the fore in Revelation 20, the judgment associated with it. Those who are going in and those who are not, which will include the dead who are resurrected and the dead who will ultimately be resurrected to judgment. Matthew 24:43 gives a similar kind of warning. Also I Thessalonians 5:2, II Peter 3:10.

A word of warning, you either do what I told you or it's judgment. It's black and white. One time someone's criticism of me, I took it as a backhanded compliment, he said the problem with Gil Rugh is he's too black and white. Well thank you. What am I supposed to be? Gray? We have the Word of God, you are either saved or you are lost, you either believe in Christ or you don't. Jesus said you are with me or you are against me. If you don't wake up I will come like a thief, you'll not know at what hour I will come to you. In other words, you'll be caught unprepared, unready. You go to judgment naked, not clothed in the righteousness that Christ can provide.

But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. There are true believers in the church. The nominal believers are called to salvation, the true believers are encouraged. There is a division here, the church is dying, it is dead. And you know what happens? The old generation dies off, the new generation doesn't know the Lord. You just wait for the oldtimers to die off and then the church rolls over. You have a few people, isn't that a terrible thing to say about a church. Wouldn't it be a terrible thing to get a letter from Christ that said you have a few people in this church that are truly saved. But what has happened? Why is it a church where so many unbelievers have found themselves comfortable? What has happened to the clarity of the message and the response to that truth?

A word of warning, you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments. Speaks of the pollution of the garments, the defiled garment. Even unbelieving pagan religions use this picture and in pagan religions they have the secular writings at times. Those who came to the pagan temple weren't allowed to come in if they had dirty, filthy garments. It was viewed as disrespectful, obviously, to the god they were worshiping. This is a picture that is common. You have defiled garments here, this is the condition of an unbeliever who is unacceptable to God. He's not clothed as he has to be with what only God can provide and what is a result of His provision. Those who have not soiled their garments, they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. And we'll see when we get to chapters 4-5, that heavenly scene, the worthiness comes from the One alone who is worthy. Ultimately, Christ, and because He is the One who is worthy and we are in Him. We, too, are worthy as those who are believers in Him. They will walk with Me in white.

Verse 5, he who overcomes, that promise to the overcomer. Who is he who overcomes but he who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, I John 5. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments. So you see here, we talk about those who are in white garments, not defiled, not soiled, not polluted. These are the believers who have believed in Christ. They will thus be clothed in white garments. They portray their purity, their righteousness, the righteousnesses of the saints.

Come back to Zechariah 3:1, then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan, indeed the Lord who has chosen to Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, standing before the angel. He spoke and said to those who were standing before him saying, remove the filthy garments from him. He said to him, see, I have taken your iniquity away from you. You see what the filthy polluted garments represent? The defilement of sin. I have taken your iniquity away from you, I will clothe you with festal robes. So I put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments while the angel of the Lord was standing by, and so on. So that's where this picture come from in the Old Testament. It is clear, what do these white garments mean? The soiled garments, the defilement of sin. I have taken your iniquity away from you, now you have the clean garments of my righteousness provided for you. You will be clothed in white garments.

Revelation 19:7, let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Blessed are they who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. You see the righteousness that we received from Christ and now is manifested in our actions and becomes our righteousness in the sense of our service to Him, produced as a result of the indwelling Holy Spirit and our submission to Him.

A promise here in chapter 3 verse 5. I will not erase his name from the book of life. Some have taken this to mean you can lose your salvation because you could have your name written in the book of life and then erased. Some have taken this to mean all names are in the book of life and if you die without believing in Christ your name is erased. I want you to note, this is a promise given to those who are clothed in white garments, whose iniquity has been taken away. He doesn't threaten the unbelievers in the church at Sardis, if you don't repent I'll erase your name. He gives a promise to those who are believers that they are secure. Your name will not be erased. The Lord knows those who are His, they are secure. We are talking about this in our study of II Timothy 2, the unbelievers that are found in the church often, but the Lord knows those who are His.

Turn over to Revelation 13:8, all who dwell on the earth will worship him, worship the false Christ during the seven-year tribulation as we will see. Note this, all who dwell on the earth will worship him, these are unbelievers, whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. Some of your translations may say the Lamb who has been slain from the foundation of the world. But I think a better translation here is their name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life. And further substantiation for that is over in Revelation 17:8, the beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. That's the biblical doctrine of election and God's sovereignty in choosing from among sinful men from before the foundation of the world some who would come and respond to His gracious offer of salvation. They respond because of His gracious act in their lives to draw them to Christ.

This book of life is mentioned in Revelation 20:12, I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. The books were opened, another book was opened which is the book of life. Verse 15, and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Chapter 21 verse 27, into the New Jerusalem nothing unclean, no one who practices abomination or lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. In Luke 10:20 during Christ's earthly ministry He gave His disciples authority over demonic spirits. But He says, don't rejoice that you have authority over spirits, rejoice that your name is written in heaven. That would be in the book of life.

So here the promise in Revelation 3:5, I will not erase his name, is an assurance to true believers—you are secure. Harsh words, words of warning to the church and particularly to unregenerate people in the church, but a strong promise to genuine believers. I will not erase his name from the book of life, the one clothed in white garments, and I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels.

We have to go to Matthew 10:32, therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will confess him before My Father who is in heaven. Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. We're just carrying that over now. Christ says I will confess his name before My Father, before the angels of heaven. On that day of judgment Christ will declare, yes, this one belongs to Me; yes, this one is one I have redeemed; they are mine. He'll own us as His own. Colossians 2 presents it very beautifully where it says He will present us before His Father holy and blameless and without spot. What a future, what a glorious end.

So the letter concludes, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This is a word of warning to us. There are nominal Christians at Indian Hills Community Church, attend here, that have never truly experienced God's salvation. I may not know them, but Christ knows. The danger for us, that's why we want to present the gospel from the youngest age to remind them of their sin and guilt before a holy God, their need to come and trust the Savior. We don't just want to push them at a very early age to make a decision for Christ and then feel good, they made a decision when they were 4. Good to know they are saved, whatever else happens at least I have the assurance they are saved. That's how you produce nominal Christians. We want genuine conversions. Not saying that a person can't be saved at an early age, I'm saying sometimes even we with best intentions are pushing for responses that the Spirit of God has not yet produced in a life. We want to build the Word of God as much as we can into the minds of our children from the youngest age. That's why we encourage you to have your children involved. Just so we can build programs? No, so they can be where they hear the Word of God and hear it again and again and again. Be with those living the Word of God and encouraging them and challenging them and reminding them so that the Spirit of God might graciously use the truth in their lives to draw them to Himself, whether early or young. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word concerning Christ. And so everything has to be built around that, lest years down the road this church has a name but only a name because it has no life. Would we plan for that? No. Could that be a danger to us? Definitely. That's why Christ said, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And as a church of Jesus Christ in this place and this time, we want to pay close attention so we can be found faithful before Him.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for you truth, thank you for the message to the church at Sardis. Lord, in many ways it is a discouraging message, a disheartening message to see this church in a generation or so has become characterized as a dead church, a church whose works have not been found acceptable in your sight, not produced by your Spirit as a result of your work of salvation in a life. Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness to us. Lord, may we be careful to hear with spiritual ears, to pay attention, that we might learn and avoid the dangers that have overtaken the church at Sardis, that we might be a faithful church, faithful until Christ calls us into His presence and takes us into the presence of your glory. Use us for you honor. May we be faithful in our service to you in the days of the week before us. We pray in Christ's name, amen.