Turn back to Revelations chapter
3. This is probably one of the most sobering letters
written to the church. church here in Sardis. I titled this message A Remnant. A Remnant. He said in verse 4,
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. where the Sardis, the city, was
at one time a very prosperous city. But at this time, this
city was in decay, like the church that was in it was in decay. At one time, this church was
a strong church. It had a name. It had a name. That it was alive and it was
vibrant. The gospel was preached throughout
that city by this church. But this church became careless
and fell into a spiritual stupor. And one thing I want you to notice
In the previous letters, when the Lord began to point out the
problems in these different places, these different churches, He
always commended them first for their good works, didn't He?
You go back and you look at those. He always commended them first
for their faith, their service, and their good works. They had
a few hypocrites in them. They had a few problems. He said,
I have a few things against thee in these other churches. But
here the Lord does not point out one good thing. Can you imagine that? Not one
good thing is said about this church. Only this. There's a few names. I have a
few sheep left in service. And that's why he's writing this
letter. And he's telling them you either
straighten up, either straighten it up or judgment's going to
come. Judgment's coming. The Lord commended
the other churches, but this one, There's nothing to commend. This is how bad it had gotten
in Sardis. The other churches had few hypocrites, but for the most part, they were
believers. This church had mostly hypocrites and a few believers. That's how bad it had gotten.
Now, he says here in verse 1, And unto the pastor And this
has to be a devastating letter for a pastor to get, a letter like this. Unto the
angel the pastor of the church in Sardis write, These things
saith he that hath the seven spirits of God. He that hath the spirit of life,
Christ has the spirit of life. He can revive this church. He
can turn this around if they'll take heed to this message. But
it also is reference, I believe, about everyone I read made reference
to the Holy Spirit. This is the Holy Spirit. And
the Holy Spirit has the power. We sing the song, Revive Us Again,
O Lord. Do we really want that? The Holy
Spirit is able. He's able to revive us again.
He's able to revive this church. And He says here, I know thy
works. I know thy works, they're not
good." If there had been one, one spark,
if there had been a spark of good works in this church, the
Lord would have mentioned it. He wouldn't have overlooked it.
He would have mentioned it. But here, he's, I know thy works,
they're not good. This church had fallen into such
a spiritual stupor that there was not one good thing that the
Lord of Glory could say about it. That's sobering, isn't it? That's sobering. Thou hast a
name that thou livest and art dead. Thou hast a name. At one
time, listen, at one time this church had a name in that city. At one time, this church was
a powerful church. At one time, the gospel went
out in power from this church, and they preached the gospel
in power. And at one time, this church had a name, and they were
trying to live off that name. They were trying to live off
the past. We can't live off the past. We
live right now by faith in Christ. Faith is not looking back. It's
looking to Him. We looked at Christ crucified.
You know, that's the way he's presented in the scripture. He's
not presented as Christ who was crucified, but Christ crucified. John said when he was taken to
the third heaven, he said, I saw a lamb as it had been slain.
He saw him in his sacrificial character. We don't live in the past. The
faith doesn't live in the past. Faith looks to Christ now. Faith
is always present. It's always in the present. It
says here, Thou hast a name that Thou livest and are dead. This
church had a good name in the community, well thought of, honorable, but they were dead. They were
dead. The first thing I thought of
when I read this today I thought there's a lot of names on tombstones
out there in a cemetery of people who were, at one time, alive,
influential, walked on this earth, had a lot of, some of them had
some power around here, some wealth, some power, a name, a
name of respect. But now where's that name? It's
written on a tombstone. Oh, don't let that ever be of
us. I pray God, don't ever let that be us. Thou hast a name,
but you're dead. You're dead. Outwardly, this
church looked alive, and I realized this. They were not preaching
heresy. The pastor of this church was
standing in the pulpit, and no doubt he's preaching the truth.
He's preaching the gospel, but there's no powers. The power's
gone. The power's gone. He said, you have a name, that
you are alive, but in reality, and this is the one who ought to
know, he said, you're dead. You're not effective. Your ministry's
not effective. It's just a dead ministry. Spiritual
life was all but gone. No power in the pastor's preaching. I pray, God, that never happens
here to me or anyone else standing in this pulpit. This is not a
recital. This is preaching. You know, preaching that's of
God now, preaching that's of God, will affect us. It will affect
everything about us. It'll make you want to go home
and read more. It'll make you want to go home and pray more. It'll make you love your neighbor
more. It'll make you love one another
more. It'll make you seek God more. It'll have that kind of
effect on you. But if you can listen to me preach,
and walk out of here, and there's no real effect at all, no change. I mean, I'm talking about daily
change. We change as we grow older. We sit under the gospel.
We should grow and mature under the gospel. And if not, there's
something wrong with me or you. There's something wrong. And 99% of the time, it'll be
me. It'll be the man standing behind
his pulpit. Because 99% of the time the congregation reflects
the pastor. That's just so. There's no power in the pastor's
preaching. No power in the church's witness. It's just nothing. It was empty.
There was nothing there. She was doing battle with no
one. No one. One of the things that
jumped out at me as I was reading this, when you read the other
letters to these other churches that we've already looked at,
they were in what? Much tribulation. That's Absinthe
here. That's how ineffective she had
become, the church in that city. There was no tribulation. There
was no battle going on here. They were just meeting on the
Lord's day, then they just go home and it was just like just
something you do. It's something we're supposed
to do on Sunday. We do not read of her tribulations. She was well liked by all. There's a problem in that. There's
a problem in that. Because this world still hates
Christ. It still hates our Lord. And it still hates every one
of his faithful children, his faithful witnesses. Every one
of them are still hated. With much tribulation shall you
enter the kingdom of heaven. If they hated me, our Lord says
what? If they hated me, what will they do? Hate you. That hasn't changed. People haven't
changed. Human nature hasn't changed.
Human nature still hates Jesus Christ. And if you and I are
His, they hate us too. And it'll come out when you tell
the truth. It'll come out when you tell the truth. When tribulation
is missing over the gospel, Something's wrong. Something
is wrong. Now, what caused this decline?
He says in verse 2, Be watchful and strengthen the things which
remain. We are taught in the Word of
God to be watchful, to be on guard. Scripture says that Satan
like a roaring lion seeks whom he may devour. And it is my duty
to be watchful, very watchful, to be on guard. Look over at
1 Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5. Look at verse 5. He are all the
children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the
night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep,
let us not slumber, falter, spiritual stupor as do others, but let
us watch. Watch. I tell you what, watch
after one another. Watch out for ourselves. Watch
out for false doctrine, but watch. Look over 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Let me read verse one. I charge
thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom,
preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will
come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their
own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall
be turned into fables. But watch, watch, he's telling Timothy here
as a pastor, but watch thou in all things, as an evangelist,
watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an
evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry, but watch. Don't fall asleep on the watch. Don't fall asleep on the watch.
Look over 1 Peter 4. He says in verse 7, But the end
of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober, and watch. unto prayer. Watch, be on guard. Don't fall asleep. Don't fall
into a spiritual stupor. But watch, he says. They let
down the pastor. I believe here's the problem.
Now, I suspect that probably maybe the
original pastor may have died. And then another one came along.
Or they got another one. And things just... The watch. The watch. They let down their
guard. The pastor let down his guard.
And a slow death ensued. It's not something that happened
overnight. But it just took a period of
time. A little here, a little there. He's still preaching the
gospel, but there's no life in it. There's no life. You know,
when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said, the word of God came
to you, the gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power
and in demonstration of the Spirit. The word of God came to you in
power. The power of God left him. It
left a message. It left. And that pastor, no
doubt, had let down his watch. He probably became slothful in
his studies. Became slack in his studies. Because I can see how this happens.
You become slack in your studies. You become slack in your prayer.
You become slack in these things. The next thing you know, the
power's gone. The power's gone. He said, but be watchful. And
the reason he's telling them this is because they were not
watchful. He's correcting the problem. And strengthen the things
which remain that are ready to die. The branches. I can just
see this. I can just see a vine. You ever seen a vine on a wall? And
it starts to wither. It starts to have dead branches
on it. And there's a little bit of life in it. You can see a
little bit of life in it, but it looks dead. I mean, it's dying.
He says strengthen that. How do we strengthen that which
remains? By preaching the gospel. By preaching the gospel. Here's
how, look at this letter as it was written to me. This is the
way I try to look at these letters, as it's written to me, each one
of them. How do I strengthen that which remains? And that
which remains is some sheep. There's some sheep that remain.
He said there's a few names there. And he still calls it his church. And the only way I could strengthen
that which remained is to preach Christ, to preach Christ crucified
and to preach Him with my heart. You know, my heart's got to be
affected with it before your heart's going to be affected
with it. I assure you, I assure you, if I stand here week after
week and I preach to you messages that really do not affect me,
You know, it's Sunday, I've got to get a message. You know, you
write out, scratch out an outline and stand in the pulpit and deliver
it and let's go home. That is not how you strengthen
that which remains. It would be my wisdom and business
to seek the Lord to strengthen me, to seek the Lord to bless
me. Every time, I can say this, every
time I stand in this pulpit before I come over here, I ask the Lord
to make me a blessing to this congregation. Bless His Word,
send it forth in power, and make me a blessing to these people,
not a burden. There's enough burdens out here
as it is. But to make me a blessing and
to give me a heart, I pray this often. Give me a heart to preach
with. You know, I'm intelligent enough
so I can write down an outline and I can give it to you without
heart, without feelings about it, without it really affecting
me. I don't think anybody out here
can pretty much do that. But to preach to you, as Paul said,
in love. to preach the truth to you in
love. To preach to you from my heart to your heart is something
God has to do. God has to do this or I'll never
have a heart to preach with. That's my prayer. That's basically
my prayer every week before I come here and preach. Make me a blessing
to them. Give me a heart to preach with.
Give me the message that you'd have me to preach. We pray for
that. What would you have me to preach tonight? Give me a heart to preach with.
And I know this, that's going to take troubles
and trials. It's going to take study. You've got to study. You
study, you pray. Paul told Timothy, study, show
yourself approved, you know, a workman that needs not be ashamed.
You pray. But to have a heart to really
preach with is a heart that has experienced repentance every day, not 30 years ago,
not 30 years ago, about a minute ago. A heart that believes God, not
30 years ago, but believes God right now. My life, my salvation, your life,
your salvation doesn't depend on what happened the last 30
years, 40 years, whatever your life is, or whatever you confessed
Christ. It's right now. It's right now. Because our Lord tells them and
He's told every church. Let me find it. He that overcometh.
How many times does he say this over and over again? He that
endures to the end. I believe now, and by God's grace,
I believe tomorrow. And if tomorrow comes, or next
week comes, next year comes, by God's grace, you and I will
believe God. We'll worship God here until
He takes us home. And I pray and you pray. God
give me a heart to preach with and you a heart to hear and receive
it. And we go away rejoicing. That's when we'll have a worship
service. That's when we'll have a worship service. Strengthen that which remains
by preaching Christ, preaching salvation by grace. Preaching
His righteousness, His blood, His person. Preaching Him. Christ crucified. This church, at this point in
time, looked like the fig tree, which our Lord saw, went up close
to it, and had no fruit on it. Had no fruit on it. He says,
For I have not found thy works perfect before God, I've not found your works. Perfect
before God, look what he says about Thyatira back over in verse
19. In chapter two, I know thy works. And your love. The love of this
church and Sardis had grown cold. Your service. The service and
Sardis had grown cold and your faith. The faith in Sardis had
grown cold. He said, I know your works, they're
not perfect before God. There's not one good thing he
had to say about them. Their works were hollow attempts
at worship. They looked good on the outside,
but no fire on the inside. The house was dressed up on the
outside, but on the inside, it was up in there. You ever go into a cold house? You know, there are just some
houses you can go into that are just cold, damp. You get that cold, damp
feeling. Pray to God that never happens
here. Come in here and have a cold, damp feeling. Their hearts did not burn anymore
when the gospel was preached. A few of them, a few, he says
there's a few. But for the most part, that congregation,
their hearts did not burn when they heard the gospel, nor was
it pricked. I don't want. And I know it's
I know it has before and I know it has with you before. But I
don't want to come to a worship service and go away unaffected. I mean, go away like you haven't
even been there. I want my heart to be blessed
or pricked. One or the other. One or the other. Their prayers had become empty
babblings. Now here is the cure. Here is
the cure. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard
and hold fast and repent. Remember the gospel that you
heard. It's a return. It's a return to the gospel,
to the heart of it. Remember the gospel that you
heard. Remember how you received it.
Remember that you received it in power. Remember what effect it had on
you when you received it. Remember what change it brought
in you. As Paul said to the Thessalonians,
you turned from your idols to serve the living God. You were impressed with Christ. You actually were
impressed. You were leaning up on your seat
to hear what the pastor had to say, what the
Lord was saying in his message. You were listening. Every one
of these, he says, he that hath an ear to hear, hear what the
Holy Spirit is saying. Remember what change it brought
in you. Remember how you heard it in power. Remember, remember
the gospel. Remember, and I think this is
the most important right here. Remember the one whom the gospel
is about. Remember the one whom it's about.
When the gospel is no more about a person, then you don't have
the gospel. The gospel is about a person. If it's when Christ is not the
center of preaching, If he's not the very heart of it, then
it's nothing more than formality. It's nothing more than telling
a story. We're not here storytelling. We're here preaching. Preaching. When preaching is no more than
a recital, we are in trouble. Remember. He said remember. Remember the good news you once
heard? I ask each one of you this. Is it still good news? I'm serious now. Give this some
thought. Is it still good news? Or is
it old news? Do you rejoice when you hear
it? Or is it, I heard that before?
Well, I hope you have. But I hope you hear it again
with the same joy you heard it before. Remember the good news. How that
God saves sinners. How that He remembers our sins
no more. If you know what sin is, that's
good news. If you're guilty, that's good news. Remember how
by grace He called you and saved you. Remember who died
on that cross. Remember who died on that cross. We take the Lord's table and
it is written, do this. in remembrance of me. I think
every service we have is a remembrance of Christ. It's a remembrance of Him. It's
an honoring of Him. It's an exalting of Him. Oh, remember the good news you heard And hold fast. There's that word
again. There's that word again. Hold fast. Remember therefore how thou hast
received. You received Him by faith. You
received Him with a broken heart. Is it still that way? How are you receiving Him this
evening? With humility? Humbleness. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. Remember, therefore, how thou
hast received and heard, and hold fast." Hold fast to the gospel. We looked
at this last week. Hold fast to the gospel. Hold
fast to how God saved sinners. Hold fast to how God saved you. Hold fast to that. Hold fast
by whose righteousness you are saved. Hold fast to that. And repent. Turn from where you're
headed back, just like he says over in the first letter. You left your first love, now
return. Remember from whence thou art fallen and return. I think to me this is such a
gracious letter. I mean, he's not pointing out
one good thing, but the fact of it is, he's not cut them off
yet. I mean, I see grace here, because there's not one thing
he can say about this church here. And yet he says, repent,
repent, return, and hold fast. If not, he says, I'm going to
come like a thief in the night, and you're not going to know
what hour, because I've already gave you a warning. I've given
you the warning. I don't owe you any." You know, it's like most parents,
most parents will tell their children not to do something
18 times before they do something about
it. He said, I've told you. Now, if you don't straighten
up, you're not going to get another letter. You're not getting another
letter. You're not getting another warning.
I'm going to come like a thief in the night. And I'm going to
take away what you have. I'm going to bring judgment.
That's what he's talking about. I'm going to bring judgment. But he says in verse 4, here's
a glimmer of light right here. Here's a little salt. Here's
a little salt. Here's the salt of the earth.
There's a little salt left here. I asked a few names, and he knew
every one of them. He's writing to this church,
which at one time was a flourishing church and had a name that it
was alive, and it was alive. But for the most part, they were dead. The ones that were not
true hypocrites were such a spiritual stupor that there was no fight
in them. No fight. But there's a few there. Now that's a few names. There
were a few true believers left. And because of that, he sends
them this letter. You know, our Lord said, I'll
never leave thee nor forsake thee. As bad as things were here in
Sardis with this church. He never forsook the few that
were left. He never forsook them. Thou hast a few names, even in
Sardis, which have not devoured their garments, and they shall
walk with me in white, for they are worthy. They're mine. They're
worthy. And he that overcometh The saints
shall be clothed in white raiment in His righteousness. They will walk with me and they
will be clothed in white. They will walk with me in righteousness
and they will be clothed in my righteousness. They will walk with me in glory. Walking denotes friendship, doesn't
it? Except who agree, how can they walk together? There were a few there. And he said, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. I don't
care if the other 2,000 are wrong. Verse 2 or 3, there he's with
them. I don't know how many was in this church. But I tell you
what, there was a few there, and because of that few, he calls it his church. And he's there with them. And
he never forsook them. And he says, they are going to
walk with me in glory. And he that overcometh, the same
shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name
out of the book of lies. He will not perish. Not one sheep
will perish. Not one sheep will be blotted
out of the book of life. I know my sheep. I know my sheep. They are mine. Their names are
written in the book of life, and they will not be erased out. In no way, shape, or form. And
I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels. I will not be ashamed to call
them brethren. Can you imagine that? We fumble and stumble and we
sin. But he says, I'll confess you
before my father. I'm not ashamed of you. I'm not
ashamed to call you my brethren. I'll confess you before my father
and before his angels, all the angels of God. This is mine. This was mine. This is my brother. Now, either hath an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, This is to
all the churches, not just that local church there, but this
is to all the churches throughout the ages. You know, at one time or another,
sooner or later, every local church goes bad. Just look at history. This is
just reality. Now, this church I was reading
lasted for several hundred years in this place. Then it's gone. It's gone. I pray the Lord will give us
a long time together. I pray he'll keep his word here,
his gospel here, keep me faithful, keep you faithful, and watch
out for this. Watch. Don't let your guard down. Don't let your guard down. Don't
go along so you can just get along. Hold fast the gospel. Hold fast. Take heed, he said, what the
Holy Spirit says, because if not, it will happen to you. It will happen to you. Take heed.