Revelation 3, we're going to
deal with Sardis. That's the fifth of the seven
churches. So far we've looked at Ephesus,
that was the first one. Then we looked at Smyrna, that
was the second one. Pergamos was the third. Last
week we looked at Thyatira. And this way there's three more
left. One, two after this one. The seven churches that Christ
sent his servant John to send a message to. And so
let's read this about the church of Sardis. Revelations 3. And unto the angel of the church
in Sardis write, These things, saith he, that have 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 to hear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. This is the fifth of the seven
churches that our Lord sent John to speak to. Go talk to the preachers. Deal with this church. Now Sardis
was a little city on top of a great big tall hill. It was almost
without access. And it was you know Paul went
to Lydia and preachers went to Lydia. It was in a place called
Lydia. And it was said to be the first city, that part of the world
that was converted under John's preaching. This man's preaching
here that wrote the book of Revelation. God gave it to him. And this
church in Sardis didn't last very long. It didn't last very
long at all. It didn't last long as a church
that honored the Lord Jesus Christ. Its candlestick was almost out. Just had a little flicker left
in it. And our Lord addresses this church. And He addresses
it this way. These things saith He. Now remember
I told you that the Lord addresses every church differently. Every
church differently. And here He says, He that hath
the seven spirits of God and has the seven stars. Now what
is He talking about having the seven spirits? You find seven
fifty-four times in the book of Revelation. Seven means perfection. And so when he says he has the
seven spirits of God, God don't have seven spirits. What he means
is that God is everywhere at all times. And that he does what
he does by spirit using his word. So there's no place you can go
where Christ is not. His spirit is everywhere. Perfectly
everywhere. Perfectly sees everything. Perfectly
knows everything. And when He talks about seven
spirits, He's talking about that this seven spirits has all the
power that's ever-present, the only life-giving power on the
earth that Christ gives when He gives His Word. And it's effectual. The seven spirits are effectual.
And then He says He has seven stars. Those seven stars, remember
he started out with seven stars in his right hand. Those seven
stars represent the churches, the angels, the ministers, the
preachers. And he has them all in his hand.
And that's why we're so Adam in about what we say and
what very careful of what we say and make sure we say the
right thing Because we have to give an account to Christ first
and foremost You know what I say here. I have to give an account
to you Yes, and you have to give an account and I have to give
an account of you before God And I have to give account of
you before my own soul but here's what I'm saying when he says
he has the seven stars that means we're in Christ's hands and He
raises up whom He will. He gives the gifts to whom He
will. And they are called ministers of His Word. And He has the means
through the preaching. to take a church and revive a
church, give life to a church, and save people by His blessed
word, by these seven spirits of God. And I know this, without
the Spirit, there is no ministry. Without the Spirit, the church
is dead. Without the Spirit, there'll
be no word, there'll be no gospel. And that's what he talks about
the seven spirits. And he has the preachers in his
hands. And I tell you what, I'm glad I'm in his hands. You know
how many preachers move around? I know one preacher that's been
seven different places. Eight, excuse me, eight different
places. And I'll be here 42 years in
March. I've been here longer than some
of you old. But that's a blessing to me.
And I have to give an account to Christ, and that's what He's
talking about. He has us in His hands. And as He read tonight
out of Ecclesiastes, enter into the house of God. Be not rash
with your mouth. Don't be hasty with your foot.
Be careful what you utter before God, for He's in the heavens
and you're on the earth. So we've got to be very careful
of what we say and how we say it. And if we're not honoring
God and honoring Christ, we're not doing anything. We're just
spinning our wheels. But our Lord said here about
Sardis. He says, Now I know thy works. I know your works. I know exactly
what you're doing. And let's hear what He said.
He said, You've got a name. You've got a name. Every church
has a name, has an identity. He said, I know that thou hast
a name, that you are living. Everybody says, boy, what a lively
church that is. Oh, they're so lively and they
just got so much going on. But our Lord says, but you're
dead. Everybody says he's alive, but
God says you're dead. Huh? Dead. Sardis had this reputation that
it was a living church. But it's a false reputation.
It had an honorable name among people there. A name for vital
religion. Oh, you've got a name. For purity
of doctrine. For unity among yourselves. Have
decency. You do all things in decency
and order in their worship. All appeared well as far as man
was concerned and as far as what they saw. But God said you did. You did. Oh my. So what does this mean? This
means that first of all they were a church house full of hypocrites. It was a church that was hypocrisy.
Bound by hypocrisy. They had a form of religion.
Paul says they had a form of religion but denying the power
thereof. You know what it is to deny the
power? It's first of all and foremost to deny the power of
God in the salvation of a soul. Secondly, to deny the power of
the blood of Christ. Thirdly, to deny the power of
the love of Christ. Fourthly, to deny the salvation
of the Lord from start to finish. You deny any part of the gospel,
you just well deny it all. And that's what he says. They
had a church in name only. They had no life. It says they
were all dead. They had no principle of life.
They was dead in their souls, dead in their services, dead
in the spirit of their ministries, deadness when they prayed, deadness
when they preached, deadness when they heard. Our Lord said,
you've got a name that you're living. But I have the seven
spirits of God and I know exactly what's going on. You're dead.
You're dead. That'd be an awful place to be,
wouldn't it? Oh my. To be dead. To be dead. Oh my. Oh to be dead. Do not have no
life in the church. Do not have the spirit of God
among us. obey the hypocrite. You know
what a hypocrite is? Now the very name of hypocrite
means that you're play acting. That's what it means. You're
on the stage and you're play acting. And so what you're doing
is you're putting on an act. A hypocrite is somebody that
puts on an act. Now these people put on an act.
When they got together they put on an act. They were putting
on a play. And it was a play act religion.
and he says you got the name you living but you're dead you're
up there you're just play acting you're just play acting you ain't
got no life you can't have no you can't you can't worship because
you don't have life don't have life now look what our Lord says
here now be watchful be watchful and strengthen the things which
remain that are ready to die Watch. Be watchful. Be watchful. Now this touches me. This really,
really moves me right here. Be watchful. Our Lord says down
there in another place, you know, be watch, watch, watch. I'll
come on you as a thief in the night. And I tell you what, they
had let down their watch. They had let down their watch.
And He says what? That you don't lose ground. Look
over here in Mark chapter 13. Look in Mark chapter 13. Watch. You know our Lord Jesus told
His disciples when He was out in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he was out there praying,
and he was praying until his sweat was as great drops of blood.
And Peter, James, and John was with him. And he said, listen,
I'm going to go over yonder and pray. But you all sit here and
watch. And he went off and prayed, and
he come back, and they was asleep. And he said, I told you to watch. There's some men coming after
me. They're going to come with lights, and torches, and swords,
and spears, and sticks. They're going to come after me.
I want you to watch. He went off and prayed again.
He come back and they was asleep. He said, sleep on now. They that
after me is here. They have to be here. See, they could have watched.
Watch out for the Lord. Watch out for the Master. He
said, Master, here comes a bunch of men. Be watchful. And look what He
said here in Mark 13 and verse 32. But of that day and that hour
knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither
the Son, but the Father. Take heed now." He's talking
about the coming of Christ. Take heed, watch, and pray. For you know not when the time
is. What time? The time for me and
you. The time of our passing here. We don't know what time
it is for us. Watch and pray for you don't
know what time it is. For the Son of Man, Christ is
a man taking a far journey. He was on this earth and He left.
And He ascended to glory and He sat down at the right hand
of God. He's gone. And He left His house. He left
His church here. He left His people here. And
he gave authority to his service. You watch out for my people.
You watch out for my house. And he told everybody there.
He gave everybody a work to do. And he commanded the porter.
Now you watch. You watch. And listen to what
he says in verse 35. Watch ye therefore. For you know
not when the master of the house cometh. We don't know when Christ
is coming. We don't know when he's coming. We don't know if
he's going to come in the evening. We don't know if he's going to
come in midnight, or he's going to come right before daylight
when the rooster starts crowing. Lest coming suddenly, what does
he find you doing? Sleeping. Sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say
unto all. Watch. Watch. Oh my, watch. David said, set a watch over
my mouth. I said a watch over my mouth.
What are we going to watch against? What do we need to watch against?
First thing we need to watch against is sin. Don't let sin
have dominion over us. Sin is deceitful. The scriptures
tell us sin is deceitful. It's so deceitful that it will
cause you to do something and justify yourself in doing it.
Watch against sin. And watch against the devil.
The devil, I mean, he wants to deceive. He paints a pretty picture,
and then when you look at that picture, but behind it, it's
full of all hideousness and all foulness. And then I'll tell
you who to watch more than anybody else. I'm going to tell you who
to watch more than anybody else. Watch yourself. Watch yourself. Don't watch the
fellow sitting next to you. Watch yourself. You know who you have more problem
with than anybody else? It's not your husband, it's not
your wife, it's not your children, it's you. That's what Paul said,
didn't he? He said, Oh, wretched man that
I am. What are you talking about, wretched
man? When I wouldn't do good, evil's right there with me. That
that I wouldn't do, I said, I ain't gonna do that. That's exactly
what I do. And what I promise I'm gonna
do, I don't. I don't. And that's the way we are. And
that's why, bless His holy name, that's why we keep coming to
Christ. Just keep coming. You know, I
trust myself less than probably any of you do here. And I don't
trust myself. You know here that old saying,
I wouldn't trust you as far as I could spit. I wouldn't know. I don't
trust me. Don't ever trust yourself. Don't
trust Christ. Trust Him who loves you and gave
Himself for you. Watch. Watch, watch, watch. And
watch your heart. Watch your heart. Don't let nothing
take your heart. Don't let nothing take your affection.
Don't let nothing take your heart off of Christ. Don't let nothing
take your affection away from God, away from Christ. Don't
let nothing get between you and your master, your Lord. Don't
let nothing happen like that. So watch. And then our Lord said
here, again in verse 2, Watch and strengthen the things
that remain, and listen to what he says, and are ready to die.
There's a few things that's remained. Death has not actually took it
over yet. They're dying. They're dying, but they're not
dead yet. Strengthen the things that remain and are ready to
die. And what he's saying here, the
things that are left. And he said, I've not found your
works perfect before God. You know why he says he don't
find their works perfect before God? Because they wasn't in Christ. They wasn't trusting Christ.
I want to show you something. Before I get on here, I want
you to look in Hebrews chapter 13. I'm going to show you just
what I'm talking about. He said, I've not found your
works perfect before God. If you're trusting your works,
there's no way in the world they can be perfect before God. If
it's something you're doing, trying to be accepted of God,
it can't be perfect before God. But look what it says here in
Hebrews 13, 21. Hebrews 13, 21. And talking about
God now, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. Listen to this, make
you perfect. In what? In every good work. to do His
will. How does that happen? Working
in you that's well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ
to whom be glory both now and forever. That's why He says your
works are not perfect. Because God didn't do it in them. God didn't do the work. God didn't
do the work. And then it says you know the
things that remain, the things that are not filled up. The forms
are there. The ceremonies are there. The religious customs are there. The traditions are there. But they were empty of any substance.
All was just a shadow. They lacked faith. They lacked
love. They lacked hope. The reality
was gone. But there are just a few that
life hadn't ebbed out of them yet. And when he said, I know
your works, your works were hollow, empty. They had no real spirit,
no life in their deeds, no real charity in their deeds. And the
reason being is, I say again, because their works weren't found
in Christ. There's not a child of God, listen
to me now. There's not a child of God, somebody
that knows anything about the grace of God, that's been converted
very long, that would ever, ever come before God with a work to
commend themselves to God. Wouldn't they? Won't do it. You
know why? Because it'd be your work. And
you know why it wouldn't be perfect? Because it's not Christ's work.
And I tell you what, if you're in Christ, we're perfect. We're
complete in Him. That's what it tells us, ain't
it? Alright. So their works were hollow. He
said, I know your works. And I tell you, you strengthen
the things that are made, that are ready to die. Be watchful.
Strengthen them. Strengthen them. Strengthen them. And I tell you what, I... I get
afraid for some people. I get afraid for some people. Now look at what he said in verse
3. Remember. Remember therefore
how? He goes back and says remember.
Now you got a name, you live and you're dead. Remember how
you received and heard and hold fast and repent. And what's he
saying? You remember how you started? You remember how you started?
That's what he said. You remember how you started?
You started by receiving something, not by giving something, not
by doing something. Oh, do you remember how thou
hast received? Everything we've got, we received.
Paul said, I received the ministry. What have you got that you didn't
receive? Who makes you to differ? And
that's why he said, don't you remember how you received? You didn't do anything. You received
it. And then He said, not only how
you received it, but what you heard. You remember how you heard? That's why our Lord always says,
the Spirit says, let him that hath ears hear. Don't you know
how you received and how you heard? He asked the Galatians
the same thing. How did you receive the Gospel?
By the works of the Lord, by the Spirit, and the hearing of
faith. And that's what He says to Aaron, remember? You're dead
now, but remember. Look back to what you received.
And if we've got anything at all, we received it. And if we heard anything, He
gave us the ear to hear it. We received and you heard. Don't
you remember that? And that's what He said. And
how did you receive it? By grace. By the power of God? By Christ? By blood? Oh, thank God for the blood.
We sung that this morning. What's that song we sung? Huh? Nothing but the blood. I thought
it started to say power and the blood. Somebody says power. It's power. I can say it right.
I can't. I can't say power. I can say
power. I can't. But, oh, listen. Here's what
I'm saying is that how did you receive it? That's all you got
to ask yourself. How did you get what you got? How did you get life? How did
you get faith? How did you get charity? How
did you get hope? How did you get it? And they said, did you
just remember now how you got it? No? Oh, you heard by the
Holy Spirit, received by faith, and look what our Lord says to
them there. And hold fast. Remember now, go back and remember.
And when you realize how you got it and how you heard it,
hold fast to that and then repent. Then repent. Repent of what you've
done. Repent of your deadness. Repent
of your lack of love and charity and faith. Remember. Remember. and all remember how welcome
the gospel was and that's what he said to him and now the mercies
of God was repent don't lose all of it and repent repent change
your mind and then look what he says there
again in verse 3 if therefore thou shalt not watch he done
told him to watch now and if you don't watch if you don't
watch You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to come on you
like a thief. And you'll not know what hour
I'll come. If you don't watch, I'll come on you as a thief.
And you know why? Our Lord mentioned that way several times. If anybody
knows somebody's going to try to break in their house, you'd
set up all night. People get all kinds of security systems
to keep people from coming in their house. You know, they see somebody walk
up to your door. You get on your phone and talk
to them and you're in another state. Way past my brain. I see people
doing it. I can't do it. Shirley wants
to try that. She can do it. She'd find out
somebody could. I couldn't. But anyway, he said,
if you don't watch, I'll come on you. And just like a thief
that slips in your house, and comes upon you. And you know
what a thief comes in for? He comes in to get anything,
only the things that are valuable. And our Lord Jesus said, I'll
come on you as a thief and you'll never know that I'm there until
it's too late. But when he comes in this place,
he said, I ain't nothing valuable to take. You'd say you'd live.
But a thief only comes and takes what's valuable. and then look
what he says here quickly in verse 4 you've got a few names
there's just a few a few names even in Sardis a few names even
in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall
walk with men white for they are worthy you know he remembers
in the midst of wrath he remembers mercy In the midst of judgment,
he remembers mercy. And he says, you've got it. There's
a few down there. There's a few left in Sardis.
There's a few. There's a few names. There's
a few people there. And I tell you what, I think Larry Crisp
preached on this when he was here on Sunday night. Nevertheless,
the foundation of God standeth sure. Why? Because the Lord knows
them that are His. And that's what he said here.
There's people with a few names. How does he know that there's
just a few names? Because he knows them. He knows
them. There's a few names in Sardis
which have not defiled their garments. The Lord knows his
people. He knows who they are. He knows
where they are. And he knows what they're doing. And look what he says. They've
not defiled their garments. They haven't got spots on their
garments. Their righteousness is Christ.
Their righteousness, that's what a garment stands for. The righteousness
of Christ. And look what he says, and they
shall walk with me in white. You notice that? He said, he
shall walk with me and he'll be white. you know revelations
19a says you know that they are dressed in white linen which
is the righteousness of the saints and oh my they are worthy and
they are worthy what made them worthy Christ made them worthy
that's what he's talking about here what a gracious promise
to walk with me in white the white robes of justification
righteousness adoption Robes of honor and glory. Look in Isaiah
61. Look at this robe over here.
Look in Isaiah 61. You remember that story of that
wedding where the wedding garment. A man came in. Everybody there
had a wedding garment in. There was a man come in and he
said, where's your wedding garment? He said, I didn't know they had
such a thing. Christ puts his people a wedding garment on them.
look what he said here in Isaiah 61 and verse 10 I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord my soul shall be joyful in God in my God for he hath
clothed me with the garments of salvation He hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation. Listen to this now. He hath covered
me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decked himself
with ornaments, as a bride adored herself with a jewel. He got us dressed up. I mean
we are dressed up. We are Christ dressed us. And
if Christ dresses you, you're dressed. You're dressed enough
to stand in the very presence of God Almighty. Oh, he said,
the Lord clothes me. The Lord clothes me. And I tell
you, they're worthy, not by any merit they've done, but because
Christ made them fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints
in life. And walk with Him in white, walk with Him in glory.
Here we walk by faith and we walk by faith, but there we're
going to walk by sight. We'll see Him as He is and be
with Him forever. And then look what He says there
in verse 5. You know our Lord uses language.
And I've told you this before. On one side you have these wonderful
promises. On the other side you have these
warnings. And those things keep us right here centered on Christ
and looking to Christ. Because we don't want to sit
on this side over here and presume on Christ and not ignore the
warnings. We don't want to go over this
far and all the promises. So He ends us up with precious
promises and then with warnings. And listen, here's one of those
things that I'm talking about. Look what He says, He that overcometh,
Overcomes. Overcomes what? I've done told
you. Sin. Self. And we didn't overcome
those things, but He's that Overcomer. Overcomes. Overcomes. Oh my. It's a labor. It's a war. And we have so much to overcome.
This world and all of its charm. This world and all of its wisdom.
This world and all of its political system. This world
and its religious system. This world and its economic system.
Just to overcome the world. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God? But he that overcometh. Watch
what our Lord says here now. The same shall be clothed in
white raiment. Oh my. He shall be perfect. That's why He's talking about
clothed in white raiment. Pure grace will end in pure glory. And look what He says. And I'm
not blotting His name out of the book of life. You remember
when Moses said, Lord, if you don't forgive Israel, blot my
name out of your book. God said, I'm not going to do
that. I'm not going to do that. And that's what He's talking
here. He said, I'm not going to blot their name out of the
book of life. No, I won't I won't do it. I'm okay. I'm gonna you
know what I'm gonna do instead of blotting their name out of
the book of life I'm gonna confess their name Confess his name Before
my father and hit before his angels I'm gonna confess his
name. I'm gonna I'm the children which
that has given me he got more confess his name before my father
and men here They die, and after a while their names is blotted
out. Take them off of the church rolls, take them off the tax
rolls, take them off the rolls of the
living. After a while their names blotted
out, taking off the rolls of memories. People quit living,
don't even have memories about them. You go to cemeteries and
the rain and the weather beat the names and the dates and things
like that off of so many gravestones that you don't even know who
they are. But not here. Christ said their
names, their names will not be blotted out. He has the book of life. He has
a role of all who inherit eternal life. The book of eternal election
and the book of remembrance that Malachi talked about. And our
Lord will produce this book of life and confess before God and
His Father and all His people. These are mine. These are mine. Let me show you this and I'll
close. Matthew 10.32. We'll look at this and then I'm
done. I'm done. You know there's so many things,
we overcome sorrow, we overcome grief, we overcome pain, we overcome
fear, we overcome so many things in this life. But you know he
said, we saw a bunch of people that came up and he said, where
did these people come from? He said, These are they that
came out of great tribulation, and have made their robes white
in the blood of the Lamb, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now look here in verse 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before me, and him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
me, Him also will I deny before my Father which is in heaven. You know what he also said in
one place and I won't look at it but he says he cannot deny
himself and for him to deny one for whom he died is to deny himself
and he cannot deny himself. Right? Our Father, in the precious,
blessed, glorious name of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who loved us and gave himself for us, we thank you
for your word. As we face it, deal with it,
face it as it is, we're living in a reality. Oh God, don't let
us ever be deceived in ourselves and don't let us deceive anybody
else. Oh God, keep our hearts stayed
on You. Keep our love stayed on You.
Keep our affections stayed on You. And oh God, keep us believing,
keep us cleaving to the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh God, I want
Christ, I need Christ. And I know I speak for everybody
here that knows him. We want him. We need him. We
got to have him. We can't live without him. And
oh Lord, our soul hungers and thirsts for you even now. Don't let us, oh, don't let us
go. Please never take your hand off
of us. Please never let us go. Please
never leave us to ourselves. Don't do it. Oh, God, please,
for Christ's sake, don't ever leave us to ourselves. Keep us. Keep us. Keep us. Keep us. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. Amen. 51 in the hymn book. Let's stand together. I know folks find that hard maybe
to understand. I don't know if believers do
or not, but I don't want to miss Christ. I don't want to miss
Christ. Psalm, what did I say, Psalm
51 or page 51? Page 51. Who can tell how much we owe
him? surrender to Him all we are and
have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He for conflict fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us. While we trust in Trust in Him, ye Saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never,
neither force nor God can sever those he loves from him. Keep us, Lord, O keep us cleaving
to thyself and still believing till the hour of our receiving. Promise joys with him Then we
shall be where we would be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are now nor could
be, soon shall be our own. Good night and God bless you
Lord Willard and I'll see you, see you Sunday, uh Wednesday.