Might please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of the Revelation and the third chapter and we'll read
the third verse. The third chapter in the book
of the Revelation and reading 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. Well, as the Apostle addresses
these churches, we receive much instruction in these words that
the Apostle was commanded to write and these words of course
form part of the words addressed to the church at Sardis. And the church at Sardis was
not in a healthy state really and therefore it was necessary
that words should be addressed to it. They might indeed recognize
their position and he tells them I know thy works, and thou hast
a name, that thou livest and art dead." And that's a pretty
strong statement. And yet how it applies to very
many people, Christian people so-called, on this occasion and
indeed throughout all the ages. There are those who pretend to
be Christians, which say they were, And yet, in reality, they
are not spiritually alive. And of course, if we're not spiritually
alive, we're spiritually dead. And therefore, that's the statement
here, that such are indeed dead. Well, the Word of God gives good
instruction. And we're told, be watchful and
strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I
have not found thy works perfect. before God. Of course I'm sure
that is true to a degree to all of us isn't it? That none of
our works are perfect before God and yet we are told to be
watchful and again so often perhaps we forget to watch. We read in
the Word of God on a number of occasions the gracious instruction
to watch to watch where we are, where we're going, watch what
we're doing, watch what we're saying, watch what we're thinking. They're all important aspects
in our spiritual life, to realise how necessary it is that we are
instructed by the Word of God. These letters that were written
to the seven churches, they were separate letters written to each
one, but they were all to write, to read all the lessons. And
we should not think today, well of course this was addressed
to a specific people, the church at Sardis, and of course they
don't even exist today. But no, these words are addressed
to the church of God, and they haven't become old fashioned,
and they haven't become outdated, and they do apply to the church
of God today, and so therefore we should read these letters
to the churches very prayerfully and very carefully. There is
very much instruction in them. Well, we come down then to these
words that we read together this morning, where the Spirit of
God tells us to remember. It's Remembrance Sunday, isn't
it, that we are commemorating today. And we like to, of course,
remember those things which have taken place in the past, for
the glory of God, to realise what wonderful deliverances brought
to us and for us, and to remember, of course, the great cost of
our freedom today that it wasn't achieved without tremendous loss
of life. And many people, of course, made
that supreme sacrifice of giving their life. So we have really
much to remember today with regards to those things, in regards to
our natural state and our country as a whole. But here really John
is directing us specifically with regards to our spiritual
life, our spiritual position. He comes and says, remember therefore
how thou hast received and heard. We might perhaps just reverse
the words and say, remember therefore how thou hast heard and receive,
because obviously we need to hear in order to receive the
truth of God. And as we are privileged, and
as many people have been privileged, to hear the Word of God, and
to receive it, and not to forget that which we have indeed heard. We have these words in this verse,
and just very quickly as a summary before we go into them. First
of all, we're told then to hold them fast. Hold them fast. Those words which we have heard
and received. And then we are to repent. And no doubt this repentance
has a clear direction to those things which we have not held
on to. We've forgotten them. We've let
them go. Spiritual instruction, spiritual
blessings, doctrines in the Word of God. We've let them go. What
a cause there is to truly be sorry for that and to repent
about it. I pray the Lord will be merciful
to us. And then again we're directed, if therefore thou shalt not watch. Watch against losing these things. Watch against forgetting these
things. We are to watch. If we don't
watch, what will happen? The Lord tells us, I will come
on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will
come upon thee. Therefore those gracious things
and words which we have will be taken away. We'll lose them. We'll forget them. They'll be
gone. So there is here in this verse
really much instruction for us. Let's come back then to the beginning.
Remember therefore how Thou hast heard and received." Well, we
may ask ourselves the question, may we not, what have we received
from the good hand of God? Now, I know we can think of that,
of course, in our natural lives, and that's right to do so, to
realize that we here in our nation have so many things that we have
received, many blessings, our freedom, our liberty, the way
we're able to worship together, the lack of fear going around
generally in our country, and the provision of God for us in
the food we have, and clothes, and friends, and these many things,
and they are granted to us, and we have received them. and what
a blessing it is. But I believe this has a far,
far more important reason, and that is with regard to our spiritual
condition. Well, what have you and I heard
of the things, the truths of God that we have received? You may have heard many things.
You may not have received them. We may have forgotten them. We
may have cast them off. And yet, to just ponder that
there are so many great and glorious truths that you and I have heard. And what a blessing if we have
received them. We can think of it in this way. We've heard, haven't we, the
greatness of God in creation. How many people today ignore
the truth of God's Word. How many people are prepared
to agree on part of God's Word where it suits them and then
to reject parts of God's Word which appear difficult to our
natural minds to take on board. And yet the whole Word of God
from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation is the
truth of God's Word and it should not be ignored. It should not
be turned away from. We should not even think of discarding
it. We should pray for faith to believe
the whole Word of God as it is written, because the whole Word
of God is for the honour and glory of God. He hasn't written
it that we might discuss it and discard it. It's there to be
studied, it's there to be read, it's there to be believed. We're
not to disbelieve the great truth of God. We should realize that
this is the word of God which has been granted to us. And if
you and I have some appreciation of the greatness of God, who
he is, Then we shall realise how small and insignificant we
are and the name of our God will be lifted up and will be exalted
in our estimation. People today reject God. They
think He is the same as themselves. They think they can just disbelieve
the great truth of God and get away with it. Well, God is just
and God is righteous. He's given his word to believe. And therefore, as we think of
it from creation, without the great word of God, we wouldn't
understand what has occurred in the history of the world since
it was created. And of course, right from the
beginning, what do we observe? We observe that sin entered into
the world. And we observe there was that
great and glorious salvation to be provided. And we've heard, no doubt, these
truths. What a blessing if we receive
them, and not rejected them, and not cast them off. You see,
here is this statement. Remember, therefore, how thou
hast received and heard. Again, look back into your life
and my life to a time perhaps when the Spirit of God showed
to us the truth of His Word and what a blessing if we received
it joyfully and received it into our heart as the Word of God. We've heard it and God's given
us that grace to receive it. Well then, you think of that
The great plan of salvation, there in that Garden of Eden,
on that tragic day in the history of the world, when Eve listens
to the temptation of Satan, succumbs to it, and it wasn't a little
thing. On the surface it perhaps was,
but what did it do? It brought sin into the world. That perfect world which God
had made, and he saw it and it was very good. And in just a
short space of time, the serpent, the devil came and tempted Eve
and then she gave to Adam and sin passed upon all mankind. And it's passed upon you and
me today. We are sinners through that original sin of Adam and
Eve. But how gracious is our God? How wonderful is our God? in the plan. And may we remember,
right back in that Garden of Eden, there was that provision
made, and that provision was set forth like this. Adam and
Eve had recognised they were naked. When they were in that
holy state, there was no embarrassment, there was no fear, there was
no wrong. When they sinned, they realised they were They tried
to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. The Lord came and
gave them a covering, a covering of animal skins. You may say,
well, there wasn't very much in that. Well, there was in actual
fact. There were two great truths set
before us. First of all, in order for those
skins to be provided, the animal had to be slain. And in order,
when it was slain, the blood was shed. The blood was shed. And then, the other picture we
have, they were clothed. God gave them a clothing. Spiritually
then, God gives his people a clothing. What is that? His righteousness. And so, way back in those early
days, the Lord provided. What a blessing
it is to think of that. And that follows through, right
through the Word of God, that glorious provision. The provision
of His righteousness and the forgiveness of sins through the
shedding of blood. You can trace it right through
the Old Testament, right through from Abraham, Moses, the high
priesthood, There it is set before the Church of God, the wonderful
picture of the shed blood. Specifically and so clearly,
we see it in those various occasions. In Abraham's case, we see the
wonderful effect of substitution of the lamb, ram taken, instead
of Isaac offered up, the ram taken. What do we see? Christ offered up. as that perfect
sacrifice instead of us. We can never atone for our sins. We are so imperfect. But think
of the great and glorious Saviour who came then, fulfilling the
demands of the holy law, and died that sin, atoning death,
shedding his precious blood in order that you and I might receive
the forgiveness of sins, might be washed from our sins, might
be redeemed through that shed blood. Remember, therefore, how
thou hast received. Well, friends today, have you
and I received into our heart these great and glorious truths? They're not just a theory. They're not just an historical
fact. They are a great and glorious
reality to the Church of God, because without such great truths,
you and I would have no hope of eternal life. Remember therefore how thou hast
received and heard, and then the work of the Saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ, came into this world to die that you and
I might live. Well, do we rejoice in the life? Do we rejoice in the death? Do we rejoice in the resurrection?
Do we rejoice in the ascension? Do we rejoice in the intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Remember therefore how thou hast
received." Well, we've heard these truths. Blessed it is if
you and I have received them into our heart and they are the
life of our soul. They're not just mere facts,
they are facts. But is it the Word of God speaking
to us and that we have by His grace receive these great and
glorious truths? Well, quite clearly, you see,
the Spirit of God was directing the Apostle John to write to
the church at Sardis because there was a lack in these things.
And we have it here for your and my instruction today, that
we might receive the truth of these things and not pass them
by And therefore this important word, remember, remember them. Remember, therefore, how thou
hast received and heard. Well, again, let us be able to
look back into our little lives and to remember perhaps occasions
when the Spirit of God worked within us produce that hearing ear so that
we did hear. Many times perhaps we've listened
to the Gospel and it's just, we've passed it by, it's gone
over our heads and it's meant nothing to us and we're glad
when we can get out and carry on our life in this poor old
world. What a blessing if the Spirit
of God has come upon us and caused us to remember his great and
glorious work so that we recognise today what the Lord Jesus Christ
did and remember who he is. Who he is. He's one of the three
persons in the Trinity. He is very God. Co-equal with
the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is very God. We are not, therefore,
to ignore such great and tremendous truths. We have today to face
that God. We have to deal with that God.
That God who was so powerful that he spoke the world into
being. That God who is the same yesterday
and today and forever. That God, oh blessed it is, if
you and I have been able to receive the great and glorious truths
of the Lasting Gospel, so that we rejoice in them today. We
bless God for the life of the Saviour. We are thankful for
sin atoning death. It is a precious theme. We rejoice to go to Calvary,
by faith and view there, the Saviour suffering on our behalf. We rejoice to realise that how
true that word is without shedding a blood, there's no remission
to believe, to receive the truth of those words that the Lord
died upon Calvary's cross, to take away our sins. Well, that
won't mean anything to us, will it? Until we know that we're
a sinner before God and need forgiveness, and need to have
The truth of God's Word applied to our heart. And when it's applied
to our heart, it's then we receive the truth of it. Remember, therefore,
how thou hast received and heard. Well, I wonder this morning,
words like this, if we were all asked to write down what we'd
received from God, what we'd heard, and what we'd heard, we'd
received. And it had been applied to our
hearts, the great truths of the Gospel, made over to us in a
personal way, so that there was that real application, so that
God's grace, by God's grace, we can recognise these things
were spoken into our heart. Well, could you write something
down? Could you write something down
that God has done for your soul? You know, it's no point in just
coming and going to hear the sermon preached and carrying
on our lives in just a vain way. You and I have to stand before
a holy God when we come to die and how important it is that
we know that Christ has died for us and that we have received
by his grace the glorious truth of the gospel. We think the Lord
gave those words when he died, he said, it is finished. Yes,
he completed the work that his father gave him to do, that work
which had been prophesied from the very early day in that garden
of Eden. When the Lord God said, when
he spoke to Adam and Eve, that the seed of the woman should
bruise the serpent's head, and so it came to pass, the fulfilment
of the word of God, the truth of God, oh, let us rejoice in
it this morning. Remember, therefore, how thou
hast received and heard, and then we're told to hold it fast,
these truths, hold them fast. Because we live in a day when
people are trying to make the things of God appear as they
were all fables and fairy tales, there was no truth in them. They're
trying to persuade everyone, the humanists and the secularists,
that there is no God. Well, we're told, aren't we?
in the Psalms, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
It's only fools that say that. Because there is a God, and he's
an eternal God, and he's the true God, and he doesn't change. He doesn't pander to our whims
and fancies. He has said, he has spoken, and
it remains forever. And therefore, we are instructed
here to hold it fast. Now just think of that. When
you hold something, you know if you're holding, well it could
be anything, couldn't it? It could be a cup or a stick
or a plate or something, couldn't it? And if you just hold it loosely,
it could easily be knocked out of your hand, couldn't it? And
if it's held very loosely, even the wind could blow it out. Well,
here we have these very simple two words. Hold the things that
you and I received fast. Really grip it. Really grip them. May they be so important to us,
because of the truth of God concerning our soul, that we hold them fast
and continue to hold them fast. The great plan of the devil is
to remove these things completely out of our mind so that we forget
them altogether and therefore we don't rely upon them. It's very interesting to note
sometimes that people perhaps who have become old and may have
lost very often their natural perception to remember things,
yet they will often speak about the things of God which they
have received from God many years ago. Now that's not always the
case, but very often it is. What a wonderful blessing it
is to see the favour and blessing of Almighty God. So here we have
an encouragement then to hold these things fast. That which
God has done for you, that which God has done for me, that which
we couldn't have done for ourselves, that which we received, to hold
it fast. So if it's held fast, it will
be as it were in our mind. We'll be able then to testify
of the things that God has said and that God has done for us.
The words that we have received. Those things that we've heard
and received, hold fast. And then moving on to this word,
and repent. We have many things to repent
of, I'm sure. Many things we wish we'd never
said. Many things perhaps we wished
we'd never done. Perhaps many things that we've
thought of, we wished we'd never thought. Are they not reasons to repent? And also, if perhaps we've received
the Word of God, and we've found ourselves like those People described
in the parable of the sower, the Word of God hasn't fallen
upon good ground. We may have received it, and the cares of this world may
have eaten it up so that we've forgotten it. May have sprung up, may have
been on stony ground, may have sprung up. and then it's died,
for lack of root, for lack of rain, for lack of moisture, and we've lost that which we
received. Is there not reason to repent?
Perhaps you might think, well, many, many sermons we've heard,
we may have read the Word of God many times, You may have
read this chapter this morning. Together, if I've said to you
now, what have we read? You might have to say, oh, hold
on, I'll just forget for a moment. You see, it's so easy to be found
like this, isn't it? To forget that which we received. And therefore we are to hold
it fast and we are to repent. If it's gone, if it's disappeared
from us, if we've lost it as it were, are we concerned about our spiritual
health? Does it concern us if we're not
healthy in our soul? Does it give us reason to repent
because of the condition we've got ourselves into? Those truths
which we love, And we'd received about the Saviour, and we were
thankful for what He'd done, and yet, what have we found? We've found the things of time
have crept in. The things of this world have
possessed our minds. The things of God have been pushed
out. The things that we've received
we've lost. Well, do we repent? Do we repent before God? Do we have to come and cry out
for his mercy? So we have this statement, hold
fast and repent. And then the word goes on to
again warn us and to encourage us, if therefore thou shalt not
watch." If we're not watching, the devil is very keen to destroy
our faith. He's very keen to remove from
our memory the things that we receive. And how does he do it? He places before our minds, before
our eyes, before our ears, things that are naturally attracted
to our flesh. And we can so easily find that
we become wrapped up in them, and the things of God don't find
a place. Well, you may say, that's being
a bit harsh. Well, it's not really. Because you may say, well, I
still read the Bible. Yeah, you may read the Bible,
but do you absorb it? Do you receive it? Do you benefit from
it? Or is it just a reading just to satisfy your conscience and
to tick the box? And say, well, I've done that
today and everything's all right. Doesn't mean to say we're very
spiritually alive, does it? So here we have. these gracious
words. Remember, the Word of God is
gracious words to us, to encourage us, to help us, to direct us,
to instruct us. The Lord knows all the problems
we're likely to face. Therefore we have such gracious
words as these, when he says, if therefore thou shalt not watch. It's a warning to all of us to
watch out. But Satan goes around. He goes
around in two guises, we're told of. Either as a roaring lion
to frighten us away from the things of God, or as an angel
of light to pretend to us that everything else is all right
to be involved in. And I suppose today probably
that's the guise that he uses mostly. He goes about and he
tells us, well that's all right, you can do that, and that's all
right and you can do that, There's no harm in it, there's no problem
in it. It doesn't tell you that it's going to take you away from
God. It doesn't tell you it's going
to produce a hard heart. It doesn't tell you you're going
to become lukewarm. And that's why we have gracious
words like this. If therefore thou shalt not watch." We are to be watchers. The Lord
Jesus tells us to watch, to watch against temptations, to watch
against the power of the devil, to watch against these things. So the Lord says, if therefore
thou shalt not watch, what's going to happen? What's going
to happen? Anything? Yes. We're told what's
going to happen. If we're not watching, the Lord
says, I will come. This is very solemn, isn't it?
The Lord says, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what
hour I will come upon thee. That really instructs us in this.
We might think, well I'll just be involved in that, and then
when I've done that, I'll revert to the things of God. I'll just
be involved in this, and it won't really distract me too much,
and I'll then revert to the things of God. That's the devil tempting us.
That's dangerous ground. And so the Lord says, I will
come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know. And what he's
telling us is this, the things that we may have received will
be taken away. And they'll be removed by the
Lord himself. That's very sad, isn't it? And
that's very searching, isn't it? And that's why we have it
here before us, to encourage us in a right way and to remember. Today, on this Remembrance Sunday,
we've remembered, haven't we, what God has done and those who
have given their lives. And why do we have it every year? we would probably forget. So
we're given these things to remember, this day to remember, to cast
our minds back. And that's what the Spirit of
God is saying to us today with regard to spiritual things. Remember,
think upon what God's done. Think upon his blessings. Remember
them. Don't just cast them aside. ponder them. It's a good thing
to remember. The Lord wrote by Moses to the
children of Israel, he said this, Thou shalt remember all the way
the Lord thy God has led thee these 40 years in the wilderness.
Well, it's a blessing for us today. If you and I can look
back in our lives, whether it's only a few years, whether it's
many years, to remember all the way the Lord has led us, all
the things that we receive from his good hand, all the things
which have been a blessing to us, all the things which has
made Jesus precious, where he's been lifted up when we blessed
him for what he's done. Remember, oh friends this morning,
may we remember the things that God has done. May we remember
those things which he has given to us, which we receive from
him, and bless him for it. And be very careful to observe
those encouraging statements which he gives to us. Hold fast
and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch,
I will come on thee as a thief, and shalt not know what hour
I will come upon thee. We might think, well, I can prepare
myself for that. No, you can't. If you and I are
walking contrary to God, we're walking in the opposite direction,
then you see this may come upon us, unawares. How solemn it is to realize the
Lord gives us these words to warn us and to encourage us. God is good. God is kind. God is gracious. May remember
his exhortations to us and be found hearing his word, which
is for our eternal good and for his honor and glory. Amen.