A solemn warning for all churches. This sermon was originally preached on February 24, 1856 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The text comes from the book of Revelation 3.4. You have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. My learned and eminently pious predecessor, Dr. Gill, is of the opinion that the different churches spoken of in the book of Revelation are types of different states through which the Church, the Church of the Living Christ, will pass through until it comes into the Philadelphia state, the state of love, in which Jesus Christ will reign in its midst. and afterwards, as he believes, will pass into the state of Laodicea, in which condition it will be when suddenly the Son of Man will come to judge the world in righteousness and the people with justice. I do not agree with him in all his suppositions with regard to these seven churches as following each other in seven periods of time But I do think he was correct when he declared that the church in Sardis was a most fitting emblem of the church in his days as it is also in these days. Dr. Gill says, when will we find any period in which the church was more like the state of Sardis as described here than it is right now? And he points out the different details in which the church of his day, and I am sure it is even more true today, was exactly like the church in Sardis. I will use the church in Sardis as an illustration of what I conceive to be the sad condition of Christendom at the present moment. My first point will be general defilement. There were only a few people only a few in Sardis who had not soiled their clothes. Secondly, special preservation. There were a few who had not soiled their clothes. And thirdly, a special reward. They will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. General defilement. The Holy Apostle John said of the church in Sardis, these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, strengthen what remains and is about to die for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard. Obey it and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. The first charge of general defilement he brings against the Church in Sardis was that they had a vast amount of open profession but very little sincere religion. I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. This is the crying sin of the present age. I am not inclined to be morbid in my temperament or to take a pessimistic view of the Church of the Living God. I always wish to exhibit a kind spirit and to speak as well as I can of the Church at large, but God forbid that any minister should shrink from declaring what he believes to be the truth. In traveling throughout this land, I am obliged to come to this conclusion, that throughout the churches there are multitudes, multitudes, who have a reputation of being alive but are dead. Religion has become fashionable. The local businessman could barely succeed in his business if he were not united with the church. It is considered reputable and honorable to attend a place of worship, and therefore men simply go to a church and become religious. And especially now that our government itself does in some measure sanction religion, we may expect that hypocrisy will abound yet more and more, and formality everywhere take the place of true religion. You can scarcely meet with a man who does not call himself a Christian. And yet it is equally hard to meet with one who is in the very marrow of his bones thoroughly sanctified to the good work of the Kingdom of Heaven. We meet with hundreds who profess to be Christians, but we must still expect to only meet a few who actually possess true Christianity. The whole nation appears to have been Christianized in an hour. But is this real? Is this sincere? Ah, we fear this is not true. How is it that people who profess to be Christians can live like everyone around them? How is it that there is so little distinction between the church and the world? Or that if there is any difference, You are frequently safer in dealing with an ungodly man than with one who professes to be righteous. How is it that men who boldly profess Christianity can live conformed to the ways of the world, indulge in the same pleasures, live in the same style, act from the same motives, deal in the same manner as others do? Is it not true that in these days the sons of God have come to resemble the sons of men? And we have reason to fear that something terrible may yet happen unless God will send a voice, a voice which will say, come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues. Take our churches at large. There is no lack of different names, but there is a lack of life, as evidenced by the fact that our prayer meetings are so poorly attended. Where is the zeal or the energy shown by the apostles? Where is the spirit of the living God? Hasn't he departed? Might not Ichabod be written on the walls of many of their sanctuaries? They have a reputation of being alive, but they are dead. They claim to be devout, but where is their sincere religion? Where is their practical godliness? Where is their firm, decisive, pure holiness? Thank God. There are a few people, even in Sardis, who have not soiled their clothes. But love itself will not allow us to say that the Church in general possesses the Spirit of God. The next charge was that there was a lack of zeal throughout the Church of Sardis. A lack of zeal throughout the Church of Sardis. He says, wake up. He looked on the church and saw the pastors sleeping, the elders sleeping, and the people sleeping. They were not as they once were, watchful for the faith, striving together and earnestly contending for it. They were no longer wrestling against the enemies of souls. They were no longer working to spread their master's kingdom. Rather, the Apostle saw sleepiness, coldness, lethargy. Therefore he said, Wake up! O John, if from your grave you could raise up and see our churches today as you did at Sardis, having your eyes anointed by the Spirit, you would say, It is even true today. Yes, We have an abundance of cold, devious Christians, multitudes of those who claim to be believers, but where are the zealous ones? Where are the zealous ones? Where are the leaders of the children of God? Where are your heroes who stand in the day of battle? Where are your men who have risked their lives that they might win Christ? and be found in him. Where are those who have a fervent love for souls? How many of our pulpits today are filled by serious, enthusiastic preachers? Sadly, look at the Church. She has built herself fine palaces imitating the Roman Catholic Church. She has dressed herself with vestments She has gone astray from her simplicity. She has lost the fire in the life which she once had. We go into our churches today and we see everything in good taste. We hear the organ play. The singing is very pleasant to the ear. The gown and the noble vestments are there. And everything is grand and pleasing. And we think that God is honored. Oh, for the days when men like George Whitefield would preach outside on a platform, when their pulpits would be in the fields and their roofs the ceiling of God's sky. Oh, for the time when we might preach in barns again and even in the catacombs. If only we might have the life of God that once they had in such places. What is the use of decorating the shell when you have lost the kernel within? Go, go and whitewash the exterior, but the life inside is gone. Decorate the outside of your cups and platters, but you have lost the pure word of God within. Your pastors are afraid to speak the whole truth, or if they seem to speak it, it is with cold, meaningless, passionless words, as if it meant nothing, whether souls were damned or saved, whether heaven were filled or not, or whether Christ would be satisfied by seeing his word give birth to new life. Do I speak vicious things? I can say as Irving once said, I deserve death if I do not believe what I say to be the truth. For the utterance of such things I might deserve the stake, but God is my witness. I have endeavored to judge and to speak impartially. O my friends, I stay at arm's length from all that universal talk of love that is now so prevalent. I do not care for it. Let us speak of things as we find them. We do believe that the church has lost her zeal and her energy. But what do men say of us? Oh, they say, you are too excited. Too excited? When men are being damned, excited? When we have the mission of heaven to preach to dying souls, you say we are too excited? Preaching too much when souls are lost? Why should it be that one man should continually preach and teach all week long while other men are laying on their couches and only preach on a Sunday? Can I bear to see the laziness the sluggishness, the indifference of ministers and of churches, and not say anything? No. There must be a protest entered, and we enter it now. Oh, Church of the Living God, you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Wake up! Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. The third charge which John brings against Sardis is that they did not strengthen what remained and was about to die. They did not strengthen what remained and was about to die. I take it that this may be related to the poor feeble saints The true children of God who were sorrowing, mourning, and groaning in their midst. Who were so oppressed with sorrow on account of the state of Sardis that they were about to die. And what does the church do now? Do the shepherds go after those that are wounded and sick and those that are weary? Do they carry the lambs in their arms and gently lead those that are with young? Do they see to poor distressed consciences and speak to those who feel their deadness in transgressions and sins? Yes, but how do they speak? They tell them to do things they cannot do, to perform impossible duties instead of strengthening what remains, and is about to die. Oh, in how much contempt are the truly new born-again children of God held in these times. They are called strange and even heretics, hissed at as being oddities, those who love great doctrine and who have departed from the usual mode of making God's word to suit men's fancies. They are called bigots, narrow-minded souls, and their beliefs are considered as dry, hard, rough, and severe Calvinism. Their gospel, which is God's gospel, is called hard, rough, and severe. The very things for which our fathers died as martyrs are not to be called wicked things. Mark this, If you are a well-respected minister of the established church and make a claim to stand for the truth, you will not be abhorred and scrutinized. However, if you go into a village and you hear of poor people who are said to be doing a great deal of mischief, are they not the people who understand most of the gospel? Go and ask the minister who are the persons that he most dislikes, and he will say, we have a nasty bunch of heretics here. What does he mean by that? Men who love the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and will accept nothing else, and are therefore called a nasty bunch of heretics. Ah, we have lost what we once had. We do not now strengthen what remains and is about to die. They are not looked after as they ought to be. They are not dearly loved. They are not nurtured. The salt of the earth are now the outcast of society. Men whom God has loved and who have attained a high standing in godliness, these are the men who will not bow their knee to Baal. and who therefore are cast into the fiery furnace of persecution and slander. Oh Sardis, Sardis, I now see you. You have soiled your clothes. Thank God there are few who have not followed a multitude to do evil and who will walk in white for they are worthy. Another charge which God has brought against the church is that they were careless about the things which they heard. They were careless about the things which they heard. He says, remember, remember therefore what you have received and heard, obey it and repent. If I am wrong upon other points, I am positive that the sin of this age is impurity of doctrine and lack of faith. Now you know, you are told every Sunday that it does not matter what you believe, that all religions and all denominations will be saved, that doctrines are not important, that as to the doctrines of God's grace, they are rather dangerous, and the less you inquire about them, the better. They are very good things for the ministers to study, but you common people cannot understand them. Thus they keep back a portion of the gospel with cautious reserve. But having studied in the devil's new Jesuit college, they understand how to call themselves a special kind of Baptist, and then preach general doctrines. They call themselves Calvinist, that is, they claim they believe in God's sovereign election, His sovereign predestination. But actually, they preach Arminianism, that is, that man chooses salvation with no real help from God. These false teachers are in reality telling the people that it does not matter whether they preach damnable heresies instead of the truth of God. What do the people in the congregation say? They say, well, he is a wise man and he ought to know. So you are going to go back into as bad a priestcraft as you ever had with the Roman Catholic Church? Preachers and ministers have become like a Catholic priest in many a place, simply because persons do not search for themselves and endeavor to get a hold of the truth of God. Everywhere it is proclaimed that everyone is right, That though one says God loved His people from before the creation of the world and another says that He did not. Though one says that God is changeable and turns away from His people and another says that He will hold them secure to the end. Though one says that the blood of Christ paid for the sins of everyone for whom it was shed, and another says that it was ineffective for a large number of those for whom he died. Though one says that the works of the law are in some measure necessary for salvation, while another says that it is by grace we have been saved, through faith, and this not from ourselves, it is a gift of God. Yet we are told that they both are right. This is a new age when falsehood and truth can kiss each other. These are new times when fire and water can become friendly. These are glorious times when there is an alliance between heaven and hell, though God knows we are of vastly different families. Ah, now, who cares for the truth except a few narrow-minded bigots, as they are called? Election, horrible. Predestination, awful. Final perseverance of the saints, wretched. Yet turn to the pages of the Puritans, and you will see that these truths were preached every day. the truths of election, predestination, and the final perseverance of the saints. Turn to the Church Fathers, read Augustine, and you will see that these were the truths for which he would have bled and died. Read the Scriptures, and if every page is not full of them, then I have not read them correctly, nor has any child of God either. Yes, a lack of correct doctrine is the great weakness of our age. We solemnly protest against it. You may believe that I am raising an outcry about nothing at all. Ah, no, my friends. My anxious spirit sees the next generation. What will that be like? This generation, Arminianism, that is, believing that predestination was conditioned by God's foreknowledge of human free choices. What's coming next? Pelagianism, that is, denying original sin and affirming the ability of human beings to be righteous by the exercise of their free will. And what could come next after that? Roman Catholicism. And what may be next? I leave you to guess. The path of error is always downward. We have taken one step in the wrong direction. God knows where we will stop. If there had not been steadfast men in the ages gone by, the Lord would not have left to us a remnant even now. All grace must have died, and we have become just like Sodom and Gomorrah. O Church of the Living God, wake up! Wake up! Once more write truth upon your banner, stamp truth upon your sword, and for God and for His Word, charge home. You knights of truth and truth alone will sit king over the whole world. But now that I have lifted up the whip, I must give another lash. Look on any part of the church you like to mention and do not leave out the church to which I belong. And let me ask you whether they have not also soiled their clothes. Look at the Church of England. Her church constitution is pure and right in most respects, yet see how her clothes are soiled. She has made the queen her head instead of God. She bows before the state and worships the golden calf that is set up before her. Look at her abominations, her compromises, Her easy living bishops doing nothing. Look at her ungodly ministers living in sin. The church member who does not realize that his church has soiled her clothes is partial to his mother church. As indeed he ought to be, but he is too partial to speak the truth. But good church members will weep because what I say is true. Then look at the Wesleyan church, haven't they also soiled their clothes? See how they have been lately struggling with the abuse of power in the church, as accursed as any that ever ruled over slaves. See how they have been torn apart and how imperfect their doctrine is, not holding to the truth of God. Look into whatever denomination you please, Independent or Baptist or any other, haven't they all soiled their clothes in some way or another? Look at the churches around you and see how they have soiled their clothes by giving baptism to those to whom it was never intended, and degrading the Lord's Supper, making it nothing but a little snack which they feed their infants. and see how they have taken away Christ's honor, how they have taken away the bread that was meant for the children of God and have given it to ungodly persons. Look at our own denomination. See how it has deserted the leading truths of the gospel. For proof of this, I refer you to hundreds of our own pulpits. O Church of the Living God, I am only a voice crying in the wilderness, but I must still cry. How you have fallen from heaven, O Morning Star! How you have fallen! Remember what you have received and heard. Obey it and repent. But if you do not wake up, your Master will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time He will come to you. But now we come to a much easier part of our message, not because we would shun what we conceive to be our duty, even at the expense of offending many now present, but because we always delight to speak well of people if we can. You have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. Here we have special preservation. special preservation. Note, you have a few people. Only a few. Not so few as some may think, but not as many as others imagine. A few compared with the mass of those professing Christianity. A few compared even with the true children of God. For many of them have soiled their clothes. They were only a few, and those few were in Sardis. Every church on earth, no matter how corrupt, has a few. You who are always fighting so much for your denomination, you think other denominations are Sardis, but there are a few A few, even in Sardis. Even if the denomination is the worst of all Protestant faiths, there are a few in Sardis. And perhaps that is all we can say about our denomination, so we will treat them all alike. There are a few in Sardis. Mark that. Not in what you conceive to be Philadelphia, your own blessed church, but in Sardis, there are a few even there. Where there is heresy and false doctrine, where there are many mistakes about rites and ceremonies, there are a few there. And even where the church bows before the state, there are a few there, yes, and a godly few also, a few whom we love, with whom we can hold communion. This makes us strongly opposed against the whole body, but it makes us very loving towards all the dear people of God everywhere. There are few even in Sardis. Well, when I meet a brother who lives in Sardis, I will hope he is one of the few. And when you meet such a person, do you say, Ah, well, I know my brother comes out of a bad church, but there are a few in Sardis, and very likely he is one of them. This is the kind of love God loves. Not the universal love which says Sardis is fine, but that which says some in Sardis are sincere. We stand this morning like old Elijah, when he stood before God and said, I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too. But God whispers back, I have reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal. Take heart, Christian, there are a few in Sardis, do not forget that, who have not soiled their clothes, Take heart, it is not all rotten yet. There is a soundness in the core after all. There is a remnant chosen by the election of grace. There is salt, and for the sake of that salt, many who have soiled their clothes will be saved. They will enter into heaven even as these few will. But for the few, there will be special honor and special blessing. Take heart then, and whenever you go to your prayer closet and mourn over the sad condition of the church, think about that godly old woman in her closet, groaning and crying in prayer. Think about that minister faithfully dispensing the word. Think about that brave deacon standing up for God's truth Think about that young man, strong in the midst of temptation. Think of these few Insardus, and they will encourage you. Do not be so downcast. Some heroes have not turned their backs in the day of battle. Some mighty men still fight for the truth. Be encouraged. There are few Insardus. But be careful. for perhaps you are not one of the few. Since there are only a few, we ought to carefully examine our hearts. Let us look at our own clothes and see whether they are soiled or not. If they are not, then we will walk dressed in white, for we are worthy because of Jesus. Be active, be prayerful, The fewer the workmen to do the work, the greater reason there is that you should be active. Be prepared in season and out of season, because there are so few. Oh, if we had hundreds instead of a few, we might say, let them do the work. But since there are only a few, then each one of those few must rush here and there. A city is besieged. It is full of inhabitants. Half of them are asleep. The others watch the walls, and thus they relieve each other. Another city has only a few defenders. See how that champion rushes first to that breach and routs the enemy. Now he brings his might to another place. A stronghold is assaulted, and he is there. Now a small rear gate is attacked. There he is with all his force behind him. He is here. He is there. He is everywhere. Because he knows there is only a handful of men who can gather around him. Take courage. Take heart. Stir yourselves up to this demanding activity. For truly there are only a few in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. Above all, my friends, be prayerful. Send up your earnest cries to God that He would multiply the faithful, that He would increase the number of chosen ones who stand firm in the faith, that He would purify the church with fire in a furnace heated seven times. Cry unto God that the day may come when all the fine gold will no longer be dim, when the glory will again return to Zion. Beg God to remove the cloud, to take away the darkness that may be felt. Be doubly prayerful, for there are only a few in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. This brings us to the third point, which is a special reward. They will walk dressed in white, for they are worthy. The attentive reader will observe that in quoting this passage I left out two of the sweetest words in the passage. It reads, They will walk with me. dressed in white, for they are worthy. That is the very heart of the honor. If the rest of it is gold, this is the jewel. They will walk with me dressed in white. That is to say, communion with Christ on earth will be the special reward of those who have not soiled their clothes. Now I must again say something very difficult, but it is true. Go into whatever group you please. Do you meet with many who hold communion with Christ? Though they may be good men, upright men, ask them if they hold communion with Christ and will they understand your question? If you give them some of those sweet spiritual books, that those who hold fellowship love to read, they will say they are mystical and they do not love them. Ask them whether they can spend an hour in meditation upon Christ, whether they have ever let their thoughts rise to heaven and allow their head to lay on the breast of the Savior, whether they ever know what it is to enter into rest Whether they understand how God the Father has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Whether they can often say, abundant sweetness while I sing, your love my ravished heart overflows. Secure in you my God and King of glory that no time knows. Ask them that and they will say, we don't understand you. Now the reason for this is in the first part of my sermon. They have soiled their clothes and therefore Christ will not walk with them. He says, those who have not soiled their clothes will walk with me. Those who hold firm to the truth who are careful to be free from the prevailing sins of the times. These, he says, will walk with me. They will be in constant fellowship with me. I will let them see that I am bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. I will bring them into the banqueting house. My banner over them will be love. They will drink the very best wine. They will have the secrets of the Lord revealed to them, because they are the people who truly fear me. They will walk with me dressed in white." Oh, Christian, if you want to have communion with Christ, the only way to have it is by not soiling your clothes as the Church has done. But we must dwell on the rest of the passage. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy." One writer has said that there is a reference here to the fact that the rabbis allowed persons to walk in white who could trace their pedigree without a flaw. But if they found any dishonor to their reputation and could not trace their birth back to Abraham, then they were not allowed to walk in white on certain days. Well, he says he thinks the passage means that those who have not soiled their clothes will be able to prove their adoption and will walk in white clothes as evidence that they are the sons of the living God. If we would be certain that we are the people of God, we must be careful that we have no blots on our clothes. For each one of those spatterings of the filth of this earth will cry out and say, Perhaps you are not a child of God. Nothing is such a father of doubt as sin. Sin is the very mother of our distress. He who is covered with sin must not expect to enjoy full assurance. But he who lives close to his God and keeps his clothes unspotted from the world, he will walk dressed in white knowing that his adoption is sure. But chiefly, we should understand this to refer to justification. They will walk dressed in white, that is, they will enjoy a constant sense of their own justification by faith. They will understand that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them, that they have a matchless robe which far exceeds what earthly princes wear. that they have been washed and made whiter than snow and purified and made more clean than wool." Again, it refers to joy and gladness. For white robes were holiday dresses among the Jews. The fact that they have not soiled their clothes will cause their faces to always be bright. They will understand what Solomon meant when he said, Eat your food with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white. He who is accepted by God will wear white garments, being received by the Father, garments of joy and gladness. Why so many doubts, so much distress and misery and mourning? It is because the church has soiled her clothes. They do not walk on the earth in white because they are not worthy. And lastly, it refers to walking in white before the throne of God. Those who have not soiled their clothes here will most certainly walk in white up in heaven. where the white-robed host sing perpetual hallelujahs to the Most High God. If you have not soiled your garments, you may say, I know whom I have believed, not because of my works, not because of my merits, but only because of the reward of grace. If there are inconceivable joys, happiness beyond a dream, bliss beyond imagination, blessedness which even our greatest desires have not imagined, then surely know that you will have all these. You will walk in white, since you are worthy. Christ will say to you, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. But what will happen? What will happen to those persons living in the church who only have a reputation of being alive, but are dead? What will happen to the mere professors of Christianity who are not possessors of Christianity? What will become of those who are only outwardly religious, but inwardly are corrupt and bitter? We answer as Calvin once did, they will walk in black for they are unworthy. Yes, they will walk in black, the blackness of God's hell. They will walk in black, the blackness of hopeless despair. They will walk in black, the blackness of incomparable anguish. They will walk in black, the blackness of damnation. They will walk in black forever because they are found unworthy. Oh, you who profess to be a Christian, examine yourselves. Oh, ministers, examine yourselves. Oh, you who make a profession of Christianity today, look within your hearts and search your souls. You live in the sight of a holy God. Oh, stop and search your own hearts. It is not a small matter for which I plead, but a matter of double importance. I beg you, examine and cross-examine your own souls and see whether you are in the path of righteousness. For it will be terrible for you if you will find in the end that you are in the church, but not of it. that you made a profession of Christianity, but it was only a cloak for your hypocrisy. You have entered into his courts here below, but are shut out of the courts above. Remember, the higher the pinnacle of profession of faith, the greater your fall of destruction. Dethroned kings, exiled princes, crownless emperors, are always the subjects of pity. False professor of Christianity, what will you think of yourself when your robes are taken from you, when your crown of profession is taken off your head, and you hear the hiss of even vile men, the scoff of blasphemers, the jeer of those who, whatever they were, were not hypocrites as you are? They will cry to you, have you become like one of us? You, professor of Christianity, you high-minded man, have you become like one of us? And you will hide your guilty heads in the dark pit of hell, but all in vain, for you will never be able to avoid that hiss which will forever greet you. What? You? The drunkard whom you told to stop drinking will say to you, have you become like one of us? And the prostitute whom you scorned, and the young debauched man whom you warned, will stare in your face and say, what? You? You who talked about religion? Have you become one of us? Oh, I think I hear them saying in hell, Here's a preacher. Come here. Here's a deacon. Here's a church member. Here's a man who has had the wine of the Lord's supper on his lips. Here's a man that has had the baptismal water on his clothes. Ah, take care of my friends. There are only a few people in Sardis who will walk dressed in white. Make sure you are part of that few. May God give you grace that you are not retrobates, but may you be accepted by the Lord in that precious day. May He give you mercy that when He separates the chaff from the wheat that you are not swept away into the eternal fire. The Lord in mercy bless this warning and hear our prayer. For Christ's sake, Amen.