Well, good evening, everyone.
We're in Revelation chapter 3 this evening. Verses 1 through 6,
it's the letter from God to the church at Sardis. So the simple
title of the message is the church at Sardis. And it's Revelation
3, 1 through 6. And unto the angel of the church
in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven
spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works that
thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful and
strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I
have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore
how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent If therefore
thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and
thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast
a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments,
and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same
shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name
out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before
my father. and before his angels. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now this letter to the church
at Sardis is a very somber letter, as you saw as we read through
it. There are no commendations at
all to the church as a whole in this letter. God doesn't commend
one good thing that's happening in this church. There are some
folks that are that are his, but the church as a whole. Remember,
this is a letter to the church, and it's all negative, every
bit of it. They had a name that they lived,
but they were dead. They had the reputation. At one
time, apparently, this was a great church, a church where the gospel
was preached. with power and the blessing of
God. They were going through all the
right motions still. Somebody was getting up and preaching.
They had a reputation. That's the word name there. They
had a reputation as being a true church of the Lord. But their
deadness was apparently something that couldn't be seen or detected
by the people there or people that visited. But God knew, and
God calls them on it. He's the one that gives life
and withholds it. He knows dead when he sees it,
and he says, you're dead. As a whole now, remember, the
church as a whole, he speaks of these ones that are gonna
walk with him, and what, they're not dead. And so we gotta remember
that he's speaking to the church. Not everyone there was dead,
and verse four is clear on that. That's why they're called the
church at Sardis. He said there's a few. There's
a few, that's all it takes. That's a church, where two or
three are gathered in my name. There I am. So it's called the
church at Sardis, not the graveyard at Sardis, because there were
a few names that hadn't defiled themselves. But as a whole, this
was a dead church. They still gathered, they still
preached, they still sang, they had what they called worship
services, but it was dead. And here's what we know about
that. Faith without works is dead. And the reason I bring
up that verse now from the book of James is look at verse two.
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, which are
ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before
God. Now, a couple of things about
that. It manifested itself, their deadness
manifested itself in their works because dead faith produces dead
works. And when he says that works are
not perfect, well, whose are? You might think, well, if they
fell a little bit short of perfect, that's still pretty good. No,
listen, before God, your works are either perfect or they're
sin. There's no gray area. If your works are not perfect
before God, then you're not accepted of God. They have to be perfect,
not in and of yourself. We can't do anything that's perfect,
we know that. But they're accepted in the Lord
Jesus Christ, just like our persons are accepted by faith, by grace
through faith in Christ. Our works are accepted when they're
works of faith, by the grace of God, wrought upon Christ. And we're gonna talk a little
bit about that. See that word works, the works are not found
perfect No work that any sinner does, even believers, and believers
know it better than anybody, no work is perfect in itself. But what God calls a perfect
work is a good work wrought on his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
for his glory. Remember Mark 14 three, let me
read it to you, and you can read along if you've got your Bible
there. Mark 14 3 and being in Bethany
in the house of Simon the leper as he sat at meat there came
a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very
precious. We've read this passage of scripture
many times but isn't it beautiful how God When you look at it from
the perspective of the text that you're studying at the time,
you see different truths, you see things more fully. She brought
that alabaster box of ointment of Spikener, very precious, the
last part of verse three, and she break the box and poured
it on his head. And there were some that had
indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste
of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for
more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor. And they
murmured against her, and Jesus said, leave her alone. Why trouble
you her? She hath wrought a good work
on me. That's a perfect work that she
wrought. Not that everything in her heart
was perfect when she did that work, or that anything we do
can be perfect in this flesh, but it was a work of faith wrought
on Christ. The words on me, they're a key,
wrought on me. That's key to understanding what
a good work is, what a perfect work is. It's something done
for the glory of God in Christ Jesus. This is called a good
work because it was wrought on him and works wrought for the
good of his sheep. You say, well, what about a work
wrought on one of my brethren? Well, that's wrought on him too.
He said, if you've done it to them, you've done it to me. You've
done it to one of the least of these, my brethren. And listen,
Acts 9.36. Give you a second to turn over
there if you're following along. Acts 9.36. Now there was at Joppa
a certain disciple named Tabitha. This woman was full of good works.
She was full of perfect work. If God calls a good work, it's
perfect. There's no in between. There's
no kind of good with God. There's no almost perfect. There's
perfect and there's sin. And the reason that is, is because
it's us and Christ. We're sin, he's perfect. If our
works are accepted in Christ, they're perfect because of him. This woman was full of good works
and alms deeds which she did and it came to pass in those
days. So what did she do? What does this mean? What were
these good works that she did? Well, we have one example in
the text and it's important to see that. It tells us what that's
talking about. She was full of good works. What
does that mean? Well it came to pass in those days that she
was sick and died whom when they had washed they laid her in an
upper chamber and for as much as Lida was nigh to Joppa and
the disciples had heard that Peter was there they sent unto
him two men desiring him that he would not delay to come to
them. Then Peter arose and went with them and when he was come
they brought him into the upper chamber and all the widows stood
by him weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas
made while she was with them. The only example we're given
in that text of what it means by she was full of good work,
she made coats. She sewed together a dress and
gave it to one of her sisters in Christ. She made a coat for
somebody that maybe didn't have one or needed a better, warmer
coat. That's a perfect work, yes. This
was a good work wrought on these ladies, but wrought on Christ. Just like the example of the
alabaster box of ointment, because the Lord said, when you've done
it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto
me. Tabitha made a coat for the Lord
Jesus Christ, according to him. If you made it for one of them
ladies, you made it for me. She made him a coat. And that's
how good works are works wrought on him, and works wrought on
his body, the church, are wrought on him. That's a good work done
by faith, for without faith it's impossible to please God. It's
got to be a work of faith, faith that works. It comes from faith. Faith works. Faith worketh by
love, the scripture says. Why'd she make a coat for that
lady? She loved her and she loved the Lord Jesus Christ and she
had fellowship and love for her sisters because of Christ and
it's a work that's done for the glory of God and for the good
of his sheep. It doesn't have to be some super important thing done, just a
simple gesture of love like we read about. What was going on
now at the church of Sardis, God didn't see it this way. He
didn't see their works to be perfect. They weren't works of
faith. as a whole. They weren't works that glorified
Christ. The preaching wasn't glorifying
of Christ. It wasn't acceptable to God.
It's got to be perfect to be acceptable to God. He said, I
don't accept your work. When he says they're not perfect
in my sight, he's saying, I don't accept them. That's not good
enough. And nothing we do is good enough,
but you see what I'm saying. If it's a work of faith brought
on Christ, then it's accepted in Christ Jesus. But these works
of this church weren't acceptable to God. God told the church at
Thyatira, listen in comparison. We can learn a little something
by comparison here. He said to the church at Thyatira,
I know your love. I know your service. I know your
faith. I know your steadfastness. None
of that is seen in the church in Sardis. he'd have seen it
in them he would have commended him for it that's why God called
it dead and of course this is warning to all churches and all
of the people in them because whether that's true of us now
or not it could be we're warned he exhorts them to strengthen
what still does remain that's good but even they Those things
were ready to die. Without his grace and mercy,
they're going to die too. Perhaps this letter from God
was what they needed to intervene and wake them up. And maybe we
don't know what happened after this letter was written to them,
but God is gracious to warn and to exhort and to teach us. And perhaps he restored this
church in a great way. We don't know. But he did write
a letter to them, and he doesn't do that in vain. He warned them,
he doesn't warn in vain. But whatever he did is his business,
and he does all things well. I believe I've seen a dead church
before. There was a lot more arguing in it than there was
unity. There was a lot more doctrinal debate, but not much clear, plain
gospel preaching. They had a reputation from past
blessings. God had blessed that church in
times past, from past times of God's presence in the wonderful
gospel preaching there that took place at one time, but now there
was very little love for one another and a lot of division
and blame and bitterness. And remember now, these letters
in Revelation are addressed to the angels of the churches. I
remind you of that every time because First and foremost, the
pastor is responsible to lead the people. And of course, the
letters were to the churches. It's a letter to the church.
And so it's addressed to the pastor, but of course, read to
the congregation by him. And they were led according to
the warnings and the commendations by the pastor. But the pastor
of the church is responsible as the bishop. He's called the
bishop of the church in the New Testament, and that means an
overseer, and this is an important definition here, a man, and this
is word for word from Strong's Concordance, an overseer, a man
charged with the duty, of seeing that things to be done by others
are done rightly. You're overseeing others to make
sure they do what's right. And that's a very important definition
there. I mean, I can't make anybody
do anything. I understand that. But the way
we oversee and cause the church to do what's right and to honor
the Lord Jesus Christ is by the preaching of the gospel. And
that's going to be clear in this letter. We're going to see that.
But that was the problem in the church I was just telling you
about. I believe I've seen a dead church. There was no leadership.
Not every problem in every church starts in the pulpit. But I'll
tell you this, if the gospel of Christ is not preached clearly,
plainly, boldly, faithfully, it will cause all manner of problems
in the church. And again, I believe I've witnessed
that. It must be made clear that Christ
is all. It's got to be made clear. There
can't be any room for boasting in the flesh. There can't be
any room for boasting in our works. It must be made clear
that he's the sinner's only righteousness. If we have any righteousness
before God, it's not like his, it's not imitating his, it is
his. His righteousness is that perfect
white robe that we stand before God in and are accepted. And
that his precious blood, it must be made clear that his precious
blood washes away sin. It don't try to do anything.
It wasn't shed in an effort, it was shed for a purpose. And
when he had accomplished the purpose for which he gave himself,
he said, it's accomplished, it's finished. And it was, it is. Look at this passage of scripture
where Paul writes to Timothy. Timothy was a young preacher
and Paul was a not so young preacher. And he gave Timothy a lot of
advice as to what it is to be a pastor and he charged Timothy,
listen to this, and there's a couple of passages I want you to hear
about this because again this is written to the leader, the
pastor of the church at Sardis primarily, but then of course
as I said read to everybody so that they'd be warned and exhorted
and as they should be from God. Everything the preacher gives
to the people is from God. It's like a letter. This is a
letter from God. I hate what religion says. This
is God's love letter to mankind. That's nonsense. But God has
written a book, and that's what we do. The pastor stands up and
tells you what God wrote, what he said, who he is, what he did,
how he saved sinners by the precious blood of Christ. But it must
be made clear, listen, this is what was not happening in Sardis.
And the reason it was dead there as a whole, 1 Timothy 4, 12,
let no man despise thy youth. Timothy was very young and some
people would have looked down on that. He said, don't let that
happen. Be an example of the believers. That's important in
word, in conversation, Be an example in the preaching, but
also in just when you're talking to people. In love, be an example
in love. God gives men after his own heart,
and I know this about God's heart toward his people, he loves them.
And so the pastor's gonna love his people. But be an example
in that, he said, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Be an example. Until I come, give attendance
to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift
that is in thee. God's gifted you to preach, don't
neglect that. He's gifted you to study. You've
known the holy scriptures from your youth, which are able to
make you wise unto salvation. Don't neglect your studies in
the scriptures and the gift to preach the gospel, clearly. which
was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of
the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give
thyself wholly unto them. That's what the pastor does now.
He said, it says that we're to give ourselves
to the preaching of the word and let others take care of the
other things that have to be done. Give thyself wholly to
them that thy profiting may appear to all. God is going to prosper
that. If that's the leadership he gives
and it's carried out by his grace, he's going to prosper that. And
everybody's going to know it. Take heed unto thyself and unto
the doctrine. He said it twice. Continue in
them. Continue in the doctrine, for
in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear
thee. Yes, it's that important. It's
a matter of life and death. Life and death is in God's hands,
but this is the means by which he administers. We're the saver
of life to some, the saver of death to others. And that's by
God's design when the gospel's preached. Now, when it says doctrine,
he mentions the word doctrine twice. That's this. That's not
a creed, that's not a system of theology that man wrote and
hung on a wall in a church or put in a book. Doctrine is what
God said. That's it. That's exactly what
it is. So when you hear me say that
the gospel is not just doctrine, I'm talking about the doctrines
that men have written. It is recorded, and it's the
doctrine of the scriptures. It's the doctrine of Christ.
It's the doctrine of God. But it's not the doctrines of
men, however true to the scriptures they are. It's not the scriptures.
The Bible is the doctrine he's referring to, clearly, in this
passage and in all throughout the scriptures. And when all
of this is not true, when that doesn't happen, when the pastor
doesn't give himself wholly to the doctrine, to the faithfulness
of preaching, then there's all manner of problem in the church.
And I suspect that had a lot to do with what was going on
in Sardis. It's the gospel that motivates
believers. We're not motivated by threats
of hell. We're motivated by Christ and
His love is the cause of our love for Him, and faith works
by love. It's what inspires us. It's what stirs us up to be fervent
in the work of Christ. The gospel's what encourages
us. It's what comforts us. Comfort you, my people, saith
the Lord. It's the gospel that instructs
us. It's profitable for instruction and righteousness, for reproof
and for doctrine. And when I say the gospel, I'm
talking about it's Christ. Christ is the one that motivates
us, but in the preaching of Christ, it's Christ preached, it's Christ
glorified and exalted in the preaching of his gospel. And so when that's lacking, there's gonna be the kind of
death that the Lord's talking about in this church. Now let
me read you another passage about that, about the preaching, because
as it's key in every church, it was key in Sardis too. God
wrote to the angel of that church, and he said, you're dead. You've
got a reputation that you're not, but you're dead, and I know
it. 2 Timothy 4.1, Again, Paul instructing this
young preacher. He said, I charge thee therefore
before God, and this is, look, this is what is meant too in
our text by strengthening that which does remain. It wasn't
that absolute heresy was being preached, or it wouldn't have
been a church at all, or there's no gospel, there's no church,
but it was that it was, there was things creeping in, and it
was a weak, it was ready to die. And listen, this is how you strengthen
the things which remain. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word.
The instant, in season, out of season, there's no off season
for preaching the gospel. It's what you need no matter
what season it is. It's what every sinner needs.
It's what every unbeliever needs. It's what every believer needs.
Preach the word. In season, out of season, be
instant. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all long-suffering, and there it is again, doctrine. We have
no warrant but the word of God. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall
they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they
shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned
unto fables. But watch thou in all things, in the preaching,
watch, watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work
of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. And again, doctrine. Doctrine's important if it's
this, if it's something man wrote. Somebody said one time, the word
of God sheds a lot of light on the Bible commentaries that I
read. Most people think of it the other way around. They read
a commentary in order to shed light on the scriptures. God's
word is our doctrine. There's nothing wrong with reading
commentaries if there's a part that you, want to just get some
exhortation or some exposition on, that's fine. But this is
our statement of faith, the word of God. And this is what is meant, again,
by strengthening the things which remain. Get back to the plain,
clear preaching of Christ. And don't glorify the flesh in
the preaching. They hadn't utterly, apparently,
abandoned the gospel completely, but it needed strengthening the
things which remain that are ready to die. Strengthen it.
Look at verse three. Remember therefore how thou hast
received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou
shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt
not know what hour I will come upon thee. He just told them
to watch now, watch. in all things where we read a
while ago, watch thou. That was Paul's exhortation to
Timothy. If you're not gonna care, if
this warning is not gonna be heeded, if you're not gonna be
diligent about this and apply yourself to this, I'll come as
a thief. You're a goner. You're not gonna
know when I'm coming, but I'm gonna come. But look at the first
part. Remember therefore how thou hast
received and heard. That's how you strengthen what
remains. Remember what God gave you and
what he told you. The gospel of Christ is received
from God. That's a gift that he's given
us his gospel here. Most places that call themselves
churches, they wouldn't know the gospel from the Book of Mormon. They wouldn't
know the gospel from the Declaration of Independence. They just don't
know. God's got to give it to you.
He got to give it to you. And it's heard. It's heard. Remember what you've received
and heard from God. We got to hear from God. You're
not hearing from me this morning. God's just using my voice to
deliver his message to you. It's heard by all in the church.
And that is everything in the church. We've got to hear from
God. Not a whole lot else has to happen.
We don't have to have a choir. We don't have to have somebody
sing a special. If it honors God, then I like
to hear that. There's a whole lot of things
we don't have to do. We don't have to have activities, but
we've got to hear from God. You know, there is no church
if there's no message from God, what you're calling it, you might
have a reputation that you're alive, but you're dead. We've
got to hear now. It's easy to get away. from preaching
the clear gospel. Let me tell you now from experience.
Let me tell you from experiencing in other preachers
and from the treachery of my own heart, it's easy to get away
from clearly preaching Christ, the sovereign Christ, the effectual
Christ, the Almighty to save Christ of Scripture. Paul said,
I'm determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. It's easy to get away from that. I've heard preachers begin to
argue with people from the pulpit that aren't even there. I've
heard it. And you probably have too. People
that aren't even there, the preachers arguing with them from the pulpit.
We didn't come to hear that. That's not what God's people
need. That's not feeding God's sheep. I've heard preachers preach
to one or two people that were there, and everybody knew about
it. What about everybody else? The
gospel's for everybody now. It's for everybody that'll show
up and listen. But don't be preaching down to
somebody or against somebody that's sitting there, and everybody
knows you're doing that. That's not feeding God's sheep.
He said, if you love me, feed my sheep. and sheep just have
one food and it's Christ. I've heard grudges being held
and personal disputes addressed from the pulpit. Listen, there
are a lot of ways to not preach the gospel of Christ clearly
and faithfully for his glory alone. There's a lot of ways
to do that. But pray for me and I'll pray for you that God will
keep us from this He says, remember, remember what you've received
from me. You didn't receive that personal
vendetta from him. You received the gospel of his
dear son from him. And he says, remember what you've
received and heard. Remember what he set us out to
do, what he sent us to do. Remember the sweet, precious
gospel that he taught us. from the beginning, forget everything
that's trivial. If you're gonna remember what
you've received and heard, you're gonna have to forget all the
foolishness of the flesh that wants to rise up and compromise
the message. Remember him as we do at the
table. Remember him in the preaching
and forget everything else. That's what Paul was saying when
I determined not to know anything. I'm determined to forget everything
else. but Christ and Him crucified. And boy, may I do that and never
stray from that. And then he says, hold fast and
repent. Hold fast. Cling to Christ as
if your life depended on it. You know why you need to do that?
Because your life depends on it. He's all of our hope. He's all
of our trust. He's all of our righteousness
and peace. He says, hold fast to that which
you've received and heard. Grab hold of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his gospel and don't let go. What has God given to us
and said to us? He gave us the gospel and spoke
the gospel to us through our hearts, but he also gave us his
son. And he gave us the message of
his son. that concerns his son. Don't miss the word watch. And
this is primarily the pastor. Now he's the one that's the overseer. He watches for your soul. But
all of us too, watch. It means to give strict attention
to, to be cautious and active. That word active in the definition
was interesting to me. You can't be lackadaisical about
watching. You've got to actively watch.
You've got to be sober and vigilant in watching. God's warning at
the end of this verse is very grave. I'll come as a thief and
I'll take you away now. Now verse four, thou hast a few
names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and
they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. Their works
are perfect. And that's only true in Christ.
That's the only way any work that a sinner does can be perfect.
Listen, he accepts me and the good works that he's foreordained
that I should walk in, all in Christ Jesus now. Is there an
imitation of him? We want to follow Him and we
want to be like Him. They're not perfect in and of
themselves, but they're accepted in Christ as good works before
God now. And this is good news. Did this
remind you of anything? We've been in a study in Isaiah
for years now. And, We haven't looked into it
in a little while because we were in Isaiah on Sunday nights
and we haven't had a Sunday night service in a while, but we'll
get back to Isaiah one of these times. But remember how often
and almost in so many chapters, it was terrible condemnation
from God upon the idolatry and the pride of of idolatrous religion,
but there was so often throughout the book of Isaiah where he mentioned
that remnant according to the election of grace. Here it is
in the church at Sardis. In the church at Sardis, there
was a remnant according to the election of grace, and he knew
their names. He said, there's a few names. Well, that's a blessing. What
a glorious promise. They're gonna walk with me in
white. Look, I'll walk with him any
way I can walk with him, but you're not gonna walk with him
unless you're in white. You got to be as holy as him.
You got to have his righteousness in order to walk with him. And
so they're gonna walk in holiness, in his holiness, and just walk
in with him. Oh man, I don't even know what
to say about that. And it says they shall. It doesn't
say if. His covenant with his people
is I will and they shall. And he has, and we shall. We're gonna walk with him in
white. There are no ifs about that. He knew their names. His elect
shall walk with him in white. They can't be deceived. It says
if it were possible, it says in the scriptures it's gonna
be so bad, there's gonna be such false doctrine in the last time,
that if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived.
I love those words, if it were possible. Because that just tells
me that it's not. They can't be deceived by whatever
false doctrine might have been creeping into this church. They
can't fall because he holds them up. We all have got to heed these
warnings now. you say, well, I'm the elect,
so these warnings don't apply to me. No, no, no, that's not
the message here. We all must heed these warnings,
but we can rest in Christ. We can rest in Christ Jesus as
long as He is our salvation. We can't fail now, but we've
got to be certain of that. We've got to be sober and vigilant.
We've got to watch. We've got to make our calling
and election sure by continually looking to him alone, trusting
him alone, knowing before God that he alone is your righteousness. He alone is your sin offering.
That's how we can be confident, not in ourselves, but in Christ
Jesus. But verse five, he that overcometh,
the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot out his name
out of the book of life. You know what that tells me?
He's gonna blot some of them out. And of course, that's condescending
language. He doesn't write names in his
book of life and then have to erase some of them. That just
means you're not in there. You're not gonna be in there.
But I will confess his name before my father. Oh my, you remember
when he said, if you deny me before men, I'll deny you before
my father. He's not gonna let his elect
do that. they're going to overcome and before his angels the white
raiment of course is the righteousness of the saints revelation 19 8
we know that from this same book of revelation the righteousness
of the saints is christ his robe of righteousness is his righteousness
and it says that he overcometh remember how that happens he
that overcometh He that overcometh will walk.
We'll wear the white now, and it's, listen to 1 John 5, 5.
Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God? And we believe that he's the
Son of God by faith. He wrote this book that we might
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that believing,
we might have life through his name. And he gives us faith to
lay hold. It's the gift of God, not of
works. Lest any man should boast. And he said, he will not blot
out our name. There are going to be those who
are not going to be written in that book of life, but he will
confess us now. He won't blot our names out,
but we'll confess our name before his father and his angels. Christ, when He appears before
His Father, He stands, making intercession for us right now
before the throne of grace, and He names us, He calls our name
before His Father as one of His redeemed ones in the very holy
place not made with hands. That's how you get into the presence
of God. That's how you, what happened
in the garden, our banishment from God's presence in favor.
That's how we get back to God. He died the just for the unjust
that he might bring us to God. And this is how we're getting
to God. He appears in the presence of God for us and calls our name
before the throne. He's one of the ones that I shed
my precious blood for. That's how you get to God. And
then verse six, he that hath an ear, you know who that is? That's somebody that God gave
an ear to hear. An ear of faith given by God
according to his sovereign grace. Let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. It's the Spirit of God, the Spirit
of Christ. Remember when he left this earth,
he said, the Spirit The Holy Spirit will take the things of
mine and show them to you. That's what happens in the gospel.
Now, it's Christ speaking. He said, you'll hear my voice
and you'll follow me if you're my sheep. But it's by his Holy
Spirit in our heart, it's the spirit that worketh upon the
heart when the gospel's preached and gives life, gives new birth,
birth from above. And He's the one that speaks
to your heart now, and He's the one that regenerates, gives life
to dead sinners. It's the Spirit of God, the Spirit
of Christ, that speaks, always speaks to the churches. It's
never just a man, although God is pleased by the voice of a
man to deliver the message. It's the Holy Spirit that must
speak. And may God give us ears to hear what He saith unto us.
I like that part too. To hear what he saith unto the
churches. He speaks to his church. Are
you part of his church? Are you a member of his church
by his grace? He speaks to his church where
two or three are gathered in his name. He's there in the midst
of us. And his spirit speaks to the
church. To the church. May God give us
ears to hear what he's saying to us. of Christ in his glory. Amen. Amen.